Comparison and Contrast Essay on Louis Hémon’s Maria Chapdelaine and Kevin Tierney’s Bon Cop, Bad Cop
Comparison and Contrast Essay on Louis Hémon’s Maria Chapdelaine and Kevin Tierney’s Bon Cop, Bad Cop
Having arrived in Canada in 1911, Louis Hémon worked on a farm in the Lac St-Jean region. During his stay, he learned about French-Canadian values. These values helped this French author describe Canadian identity from a different, but efficient, point of view. His internationally sold novel Maria Chapdelaine was published in 1913. The novel narrates the story of a young French Canadian woman. While Maria is questioning herself on which men she will marry, the harsh Canadian seasons continue to pass. In comparison, the movie Bon Cop, Bad Cop was produced by Kevin Tierney at the beginning of the following century, in 2006. Born in Montreal, this French Canadian is now one of the top Canadian movie producers. His satire brings together two characters, Martin Ward and David Bouchard. They are police investigators and are confined to work together on a serial killer. Their identity differs by their respective geographical regions and their language. This essay will discuss how the authors, Tierney and Hémon, although born in different continents, describe the values relating to the same Canadian identity throughout different time periods. The values that describe Canadians are equality, family and community devotion and patriotism. The value of equality has been a recurrent theme in the Canadian history. In fact, the Canadian nation has given importance to equality through sexual liberty, plurality, acceptance of different cultures, personal growth (Adams, p.175). These two stories were written and take place in two different centuries. The value of equality is strongly demonstrated throughout Hémon’s novel. For example, when the family Chapdelaine has finally arrived to make the second farm functional, Samuel Chapdelaine considers himself insane because he would like to move to a new project. (Hémon p.187). It is Laura Chapdelaine, his wife that asks him “Eh
Having arrived in Canada in 1911, Louis Hémon worked on a farm in the Lac St-Jean region. During his stay, he learned about French-Canadian values. These values helped this French author describe Canadian identity from a different, but efficient, point of view. His internationally sold novel Maria Chapdelaine was published in 1913. The novel narrates the story of a young French Canadian woman. While Maria is questioning herself on which men she will marry, the harsh Canadian seasons continue to pass. In comparison, the movie Bon Cop, Bad Cop was produced by Kevin Tierney at the beginning of the following century, in 2006. Born in Montreal, this French Canadian is now one of the top Canadian movie producers. His satire brings together two characters, Martin Ward and David Bouchard. They are police investigators and are confined to work together on a serial killer. Their identity differs by their respective geographical regions and their language. This essay will discuss how the authors, Tierney and Hémon, although born in different continents, describe the values relating to the same Canadian identity throughout different time periods. The values that describe Canadians are equality, family and community devotion and patriotism. The value of equality has been a recurrent theme in the Canadian history. In fact, the Canadian nation has given importance to equality through sexual liberty, plurality, acceptance of different cultures, personal growth (Adams, p.175). These two stories were written and take place in two different centuries. The value of equality is strongly demonstrated throughout Hémon’s novel. For example, when the family Chapdelaine has finally arrived to make the second farm functional, Samuel Chapdelaine considers himself insane because he would like to move to a new project. (Hémon p.187). It is Laura Chapdelaine, his wife that asks him “Eh
Bibliography: Hémon, Louis. Maria Chapdelaine Canada: Editions Fides, 1980 Tierney, Kevin (script writer, producer). Bon Cop, Bad Cop [motion picture] Canada: Alliance Atlantis Viva Film, 2006 Adams, Michael. Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada and the myth of converging Values: Penguin Canada, 2009