ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the relationship between narrator's and characters' voices to suggest that polyphonic and cacophonic tendencies in Zazie problematize the object/subject dichotomy that is inherent to both polyphony and ventriloquism. It shows that cacophonic tendencies are part of the strategy for the dissemination and deconstruction of the third-person narrative voice. Controlled and orchestrated by a cacophonic narrative voice, the characters are neither fully objects nor fully subjects, and move between the two positions at different stages in the text. The chapter suggests that in the absurd world of Zazie, the characters' freedom is problematic, and the narrator's role potentially ambiguous. It briefly contextualizes Zazie in Queneau's literary oeuvre and provides a short synopsis of the novel. The chapter describes the character that epitomizes unfinalizability in the text is Trouscaillon, who cyclically reappears with a new, imperfect identity. Zazie, Trouscaillon, and Gabriel are the only three characters who show the potential to get the attention of a crowd.
