Introduction
Remi is the leading actor in the story « sans famille ». He seems to be the narrator of the whole story so as it is narrated in first person point of view. He lived a miserable life throughout his lifespan till finally he conquered success existence. I really admire the life style he exhibited throughout the challenges he come across in his years of living with people he never really know.
The beginning of Remi’s life
Remi happened to be an adopted child of Mère Barberin and Père Barberin. Nobody knows how the whole phenomenon manifested until Remi discovered his real parents. Mère Barberin has factual love and compassion for his little boy Remi from the day he was found in front of their doorstep. But for not having any child on her own, Mère Barberin considered Remi her only son.
This little boy stayed in harmony with her mother Barberin for eight good years until fateful event happened and père Barberin has to join them from France. No doubt, Remi knows for sure that Mère Barberin is his biological Mather and this nature of sentiment reciprocated between them in all circumstances.
Calamity started arising when Père Barberin felt victim of an accident in France and decided to join the family in Usell. We understand that he felt from the top of a roofing house and he could not raise money anymore to support the family; for he has been admitted for some days at the hospital.
For the past eight years, Père Barberin did send money to the family, but for now, Remi and the mother can only survive by selling the only cow they were having for milk. You can get it straightforward in this short statement: “le seul moyen d’avoir quelque argent était de vendre la vache ! mais une vache, c’est la nourriture du paysan ; si nous la vendions, nous n’avions plus de beurre ni de lait, ni de fromage, ni de tout ce que nous achetions avec quelques litres de lait par jour ».
With all this misfortune, Mère Barberin never lost affection for Remi; and she continues taking good care of him as though things were getting better instead. Hardly they eat better food in the house. You can just imagine how miserable it will be for a mother and the son to feed in bread in the morning and salt potato in the evening.
Nonetheless, things started becoming increasingly unbearable for Remi by the time the father Barberin retuned from France. One can just imagine how cruel this man will be for Remi upon arrival. On closer observation however, he accepted Remi to be adopted in view of the money he anticipated of getting from parents who might’ve lost him accidentally and the perception of being the one who will found him for recommendation.
There is suspicion that Père Barberin has no affection for Remi. We discovered his disreputable attitude in the following words: “ Tu n’a pas faim? Et bien va te coucher, et vite.
He proved to be a very wicked father when he asked the mother: Pourquoi as tu qardé cet enfant?
I really love the role played by Mère Barberin when he said: je l’aime. Rappelles toi, Barberin, nous l’avons trouvé quand il était à peine un bébé, je lui ai donné mon lait, à ce pauvre petit, puisque notre fils venait de mourir. Comment pouvais-je le jeter dehors !
But for Père Barberin’s wickedness, Remi might’ve not discovered his real status as a buster. He never loves Père Barberin as he stated it in the following versions: cet home n’est pas mon pere et cela me fait plaisir, parceque je ne l’aime pas.
Mère Barberin demonstrated a sincere motherly care throughout the story to Remi, and that has been the same for all mothers, who always have sympathy for little poor children. Some of this statement proved how cordial their commutation was:
Mere Barberin- tu ne dors pas, mon petit? Tu as donc tout entendu?
Remi - tu n’es pas ma maman et cela me fait de la peine.
No one dare appreciate the role play by Père Barberin. I never love him in view of his money consciousness. He went to that extent of selling Remi for money. You can just imagine such depressing news. It is quite unfortunate some parents rent their children for money. Those unscrupulous behaviors are mostly found among fathers, and it must be discouraged by both the traditional and Christians practitioners.
Everyone will definitively appreciate Remi’s character. He played the role of modesty. He never gets offended nor discouraged despite the numerous challenges he went through from Père Barberin’s House till he discovered his own family.
Vitalis, whose real name is Carlo Balzani, Was the one Remi was hired to. He showed the sense of good Samaritan and his role played has been highly recommendable. He has been a great teacher for both Remi and the animals such as Joli Coeur, which happened to be the monkey and the other three dogs; Capi Dolce and Zerbino. Carlo Balzani and Remi lived a happy life and no one could see any different among them as father and son.
They earned their living through a concert and singing which they have organized to entertain the public. Carlo Balzani is an exceptional singer and Remi had ever dreamt to be inspired by that unique talent of him. Remi proved to his master that he is not stupid; for that matter he was able to read and do some basic arithmetic with Joli-coeur within a few day after they have embarked on their journey from Ussel.
Of late, we have found out that public was so captivated by the animals Remi and his master organized for concert party. It is so amazing to see how animals play the role of an intelligent person whereas Remi has been asked to behave as stupid boy. Ironically animals are intelligent and humans are stupid.
You can just visualize how marvelous the whole show will look like. We perceived how excessive his master was impatient and violent which resulted in his detaining by the police; since he was not able to control the animals in public.