de in her wedding palanquin. She was being forced to marry a respectable brute” (44).Malraux’s whole political indoctrination comes from being raised in France. The attitude of proletariat versus bourgeoisie is a long standing conflict within the French culture. “The decade or so after 1902 has become known as the ‘heroic age of syndicalism.’ Revolutionary syndicalists, in their emphasis on an immediate, face-to-face struggle between workers and capitalists, continued the emphasis on daily confrontations, [...]” (Haine 231).Malraux depicts Old Gisors as an intellectual “[...] he found his room filled with white flowers from the students [...]” (66), artist “His exquisitely pure sense of Chinese art, of those bluish paintings on which his lamp cast only a dim light [...]” (67), and an opium addict “He got up, opened the drawer of the low table where he kept his opium tray [...]” (67). Malraux himself was an artist and a lover of art, he was also considered an intellectual. In his later years, De Gaulle appointed him France’s Minister of Cultural Affairs. Malraux’s depiction of Gisors as an opium addict was a popular literary theme of the time and he has a clear understanding of how opium affects the user: At the time opium was in fashion [...] It is above all a literary theme, linked both to decadence and to all that we connect with exoticism. To this drug is attributed all the power of heightening perception and sharpening the mind. It is the opium of splendid daydreams, of heightened knowledge of the world, of sharpened sensations, the opium which consoles and puts right, the adventurer’s companion. However, it is also the opium of the poor, the terrible misery of destitution and dependence, a poison of degeneration and suicide. It thus combines both the magic of sophistication and the intoxication of abandonment.” (Copin).Mal...
