passage exposition

The passage that I'd like to examine is on pp. 46-47, when the man whom we think of as Martin Guerre returns home. I chose this passage because it contains a very interesting shift in point of view, from Bertrande's perspective to her son Sanxi's perspective.

I'll begin with Bertrande's line: "Here is your father, your good father of whom we have talked so many times. Salute him." She says this because Sanxi is "bury[ing] his head into her skirts," like a small child. Now when I first read this passage, I just thought Sanxi was shy, but now I think something deeper is going on. Consider how this line of dialogue is constructed to emphasize the husband's goodness. Bertrande wants to make it clear to her son that Martin Guerre is not a man he should fear. But the fact that he is afraid suggests that in the past, someone, likely Bertrande, told her son that Martin Guerre is not a man to trifle with. Her use of the imperative voice when she says "salute him" suggests how afraid she is that Martin will become angry with her or Sanxi. A few  lines later, she says, "Do not hold it against him. Consider, how strange--for him, as for me." This is more evidence of how determined Bertrande is not to provoke violence against her son.

Sanxi, meanwhile, is personified as very, very young. He's described as a "kitten" and has no sense of agency. Instead of running to his father, he "[feels] himself hoisted into the air." This is why I was surprised when Sanxi becomes our focalizer, in this line: "The boy felt himself set on his feet firmly, and then his parents turned away from him." The fact that we're now sensing Janet Lewis' book from Sanxi's perspective is completely new and unexpected. The change lasts for only a couple pages, and it never recurs. If Janet Lewis were a weaker writer, I'm not sure she could get away with this, but so it goes. I suppose the shift keeps us, the reader, firmly in the position of observing events from an exterior, objective perspective. Bertrande is carried away with emotion, so for a short time we perceive the world through the eyes of her son, who is just struggling to figure out what's going on. Later, when Sanxi falls in love with the imposter and Bertrande begins to question his identity, our perspective reverts to Bertrande. In a book obsessed with truth and evidence, this emphasis on retaining the "objective" perspective shouldn't surprise us. Weirdly enough, Sanxi is the first person to doubt that this man is his real father. He doubts him immediately.

The rest of this paragraph is dedicated to establishing how close Sanxi is to his mother. He's portrayed as standing "in front of his mother's chair." He's intimately aware of his mother's position in the room, and he notes the moment when she leaves it, "clinging to the arm of the stranger." We shouldn't underestimate the importance of the word "stranger," especially since he really does turn out to be a stranger. As long as he perceives the truth, Sanxi is allowed to be our point of entrance into this world.