The Whale By Yves Thériault

In Yves Thériault’s short story “The Whale”, Ambroise Bourdages, the protagonist is portrayed to be a naive character. His quality comes across to the reader when Clovis and Ambroise are talking and Ambroise says, “Clovis, no one would ever take you for a liar! A banker’s son isn’t allowed to tell lies!”(Thériault, 26). This demonstrates that Ambroise does not know how Clovis acts nor is he aware of some of Clovis’s characteristics. Thus, is naive about the situation and has interpreted him as a stereotypical banker’s son. Furthermore, his naivety is also apparent when the author shows Ambroise’s thinking of the town’s reaction when listening to his whale story in which he says, “everyone would have made a solemn show of believing it” (Thériault,