Simone De Beauvoir's The Age Of Discretion

[1] Simone de Beauvoir’s short story “The Age of Discretion” the career and familial problems of an aging woman, who is left unnamed. Her main conflict resides with her son Philippe - he drifts away from the life she desires for him toward that which his wife, Irène, desires. The narrator is also faced with other troubles, such as distrusting her husband and poor reception of her book, but these are overshadowed by the main conflict with her son. Beginning at birth, Philippe’s life is shaped by his mother such that it is nearly identical to his parents - he works in academia and stand up for left-wing causes. However, upon his marriage to Irène, he is convinced by her to leave the university he teaches at to work for the right-wing French government’s
This idea is very clearly evident between the narrator and her son - most of his life is entirely defined by her, another person. This relationship is clearly a direct embodiment of the beliefs espoused in Cox’s work; however, de Beauvoir expands upon these beliefs with other characters. Then there is the relationship between Irène and the mother, which is largely indirect, but there still exists this interpersonal struggle. Rather than through direct encounter, these two characters attempt to transcend the other’s transcendence through Philippe by conforming him to their world view. Finally, we can examine the narrator's acceptance of Philippe’s decision, in which she allows Irène to define Philippe. However, this decision does not come from her, but rather transcendence by her husband, further reinforcing the importance of being-for-others. De Beauvoir very clearly expresses her belief of being-for-others through her characters in “The Age of Discretion,” allowing us to discover her existential
There is very little direct confrontation between Irène and the narrator, yet I would argue their conflict is the greatest in the story. In fact, prior to the story, the narrator hardly notices Irène and even states “She was silent most of the time...from time to time she did drop a little observation, surprising … by its stupidity or utter ordinariness” (de Beauvoir 30). Their relationship only entailed a small, almost irrelevant amount of conflict; however, upon her marriage to Philippe, she became a much greater threat to the narrator’s essence. Now they have a conflict in attempting to mold Philippe’s essence to be in agreement with their own. They do not attempt to transcend each other directly, instead they attempt to transcend the other’s transcendence in Philippe, who does little to resist this tug-of-war over his essence. He becomes merely a battlefield for the two women to fight for transcendence. This is reinforced by the fact the Philippe says “Maybe I’m easily influenced, but truly I have come to see thing in another light” (de Beauvoir 33) and that prior to meeting Irène he seemingly made no decisions on his own and just following his mother’s guidance. This creates a possibility that people can develop a relationship indirectly and still be affected by the