www.andregide.org | Andre Gide - Andre Maurois

Introduction

Like Thus Spake Zarathustra, Les Nourritures Terrestres is a gospel in the root sense of the word--glad tidings. Tidings about the meaning of life addressed to a dearly loved disciple whom Gide calls Nathanael. The book is composed of Bible verses, hymns, recits, songs, rounds, held together on the one hand by the presence of Nathanael and on the other by the doctrine Gide seems to be teaching him.

The Character of Menalque

Besides Nathanael and the author, there is a third character in Les Nourritures, one who reappears in L'Immoraliste and who is in Gide's life what Merck was in Goethe's or Mephistopheles in Faust's. This character, whom Gide calls Menalque, has sometimes been identified with Oscar Wilde, but Gide told me it wasn't Wilde at all. Menalque is, indeed, no one unless perhaps one aspect of Gide himself, one of the interlocutors in the dialogue of Gide with Gide that comprises his spiritual life. The core of the book was a recit by Menalque, one not far different from a recit Gide might have given after his African rebirth.... This recit contains the essence of the "tidings" of Les Nourritures.

The Doctrine of Les Nourritures Terrestres

First a negative doctrine: flee families, rules, stability. Gide himself suffered so much from "snug homes" that he harped on its dangers all his life. Then a positive doctrine: one must seek adventure, excess, fervor; one should loathe the lukewarm, security, all tempered feelings. "Not affection, Nathanael: love ..." Meaning not a shallow feeling based on nothing perhaps but tastes in common, but a feeling into which one throws oneself wholly and forgets oneself. Love is dangerous, but that is yet another reason for loving, even if it means risking one's happiness, especially if it means losing one's happiness. For happiness makes man less. "Descend to the bottom of the pit if you want to see the stars." Gide insists on this idea that there is no salvation in contented satisfaction with oneself, an idea he shares with both a number of great Christians and with Blake: "Unhappiness exaults, happiness slackens."

The Contradictions Within

It would be a mistake to view the doctrine of Les Nourritures Terrestres as the product of a sensualist's egoism. On the contrary, it is a doctrine in which the Self (which is essentially continuity, memory of and submission to the past) fades out and disappears in order that the individual may lose himself, dissolve himself into each perfect moment. But why doesn't Gide require of himself the same rejection he so strongly urges on his disciple? And if he has a horror of any and all doctrine, why isn't he horrified by his own? He is much too much Gide to be Gidean. He always protested against people's habit of reducing him to a rulebook when he had attempted, contrarily, to create a rulebook for escape. This is Gide's supreme and perilous leap, the leap that makes him impossible to pin down.

The Endurance of Les Nourritures Terrestres

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With the discovery of the harshness of life, the magical and sheltered days of childhood are followed, with nearly every adolescent, by a period of rebellion. This is the first adolescent "stage." The second stage is the discovery-- despite disillusionments and difficulties--of the beauty of life. This discovery ordinarily occurs between eighteen and twenty. It produces most of our young lyric poets. The special thing about Gide's character, its originality and its force, is that, having been retarded in natural development by reason of the constraints of his upbringing, he went through this second stage when his mind was already relatively mature, the result being that this retardation enabled him to express the discoveries common to all young people in more perfect form. In other words, young people are beholden to a retarded and unregenerate adolescent for having so well expressed what they feel.

Conclusion: The Writer's Eagle

The writer's eagle is his work, and he should sacrifice himself to it. Gide advises his disciple to leave him, demonstrating the ultimate rejection and sacrifice of self. But Gide himself is unable to fully embrace his own teachings. He remains a complex and contradictory figure, constantly grappling with his own beliefs. This is what makes his works like Les Nourritures Terrestres endure and resonate with so many young readers even after thirty years. They find in Gide's works a reflection of their own journey of self-discovery and rebellion against societal constraints.

So, just like a hotel room offers a temporary escape from the routines of daily life, Andre Gide, through his works like Les Nourritures Terrestres, offers a temporary escape from the confines of societal norms and encourages readers to explore the depths of their own passions and desires.