. marguerite duras .

Marguerite Duras was a famous French writer and filmmaker. She was born in French Indochina in 1914, and struggled against various obstacles throughout her life. Her father died when she was only 6, which left her mother, who was a schoolteacher, to raise Marguerite and her two older brothers. Although her mother was a strong woman to raise her children alone in an Asian nation barely colonized - she would often fly into rampages - her emotions fluctuated wildly and frequently. Marguerite's mother was domineering and she favored her eldest son, who grew to be a monster. He tyrannized Marguerite constantly - even when both were adults. Because there was only one breadwinner and the eldest son would steal the mother's earnings and spend it drinking and gambling, Marguerite grew up impoverished. Marguerite's mother insisted that she grow up to be a math teacher, like her father, but Marguerite knew early on that she needed to be a writer. Despite threats and the lack of suport from her family, Marguerite did become a writer.

Although many - including her family - have called Marguerite "stubborn" and "defiant," I believe Marguerite Duras was persistent and rebellious. She allowed her sexuality to flower at a time when Victorian ideals were still the rule, she persisted in her desire and dream to write, she drank when it was still "unladylike" and she worked with Mitterand and her lovers for the French Resistance, risking her life to save concentration camp refugees and others who needed shelter.

Some of her better-known writings include: The Lover, The Sea Wall, The North China Lover, Hiroshima Mon Amour, The War.

Despite her husband's disappearance to a concentration camp, despite her later alcoholism, despite her lack of support from any family, Marguerite blessed us with a multitude of short stories, novels and movies. Her style is sophisticated and powerful: lyrical, dreamlike, minimalistic and symbolic. When one reads her work, one can hear the ocean waves crashing beneath the surface.

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