ABSTRACT
In order to facilitate generalization, Gide simplified his initial idea and scenario for Angele ou le pauvre petit voyage. He transformed menacing sensuality and the voyage to a neighbourhood park into immobility and the joys of vegetation. Gide then creates the possibility of generalization by obliging his protagonist to see paludal traits in the world about him and finally by forcing him to see himself as victim of these very same traits. By juxtaposing these two figures, separable not only by their varying degrees of intensity but by their cultural backgrounds, Gide reinforces his invitation to generalize. The temporal distance a work of art places between the figures it depicts and their audience was discussed by Racine in his preface to Bajazet. Anachronism for the sake of prompting generalizations is a technique Gide used in many of the works that followed Paludes.
