Born 15/12/1920 Tunis
Background
The main theme of La Statue de sel is that of identity. The work is written by the first person narrator Alexandre who suffers the same triple alienation as Memmi, indeed, the work is quasi-autobiographical. The Narrator's name (Alexandre Mordekhai Benillouche) is representative of his identity conflict. Alexandre is "en hommage a l'Occident", Mordekhai says "je suis juif..... j'habite le ghetto" and alludes to his poverty. His surname Benillouche means "le fils de l'agneau" in Berber Arab patois. As the narrator puts it himself he is "indigene dans un pays de colonization, juif dans un univers antisemite, Africain dans un monde ou triomphe l'Europe." At the French lycee his traditions, language and religion are all thrown into a state of turmoil. Memmi saw this as entirely necessary, for in a quest for identity one has to tear apart one's cultural baggage. At school he becomes ashamed of his mother and as the world of philosophy opens up to him he loses faith in his father. He consequently rejects his fathers ambitions for him. He hopes to enter the world of others through philosophy and find a place where he belongs. He is subsequently let down by the west in World War II, by the Vichy government and is further alienated in the labor camp. His use of the colonizers language alienates him from his own people and yet Western racial prejudice means that he finds no home in the West either. As Alexandre himself puts it "J'avais refuse l'Orient et l'Occident me refusait" The only solution is to leave both cultures and he heads for Argentina to start afresh. In burning his diary he makes the symbolic transition to a new identity and the meaning of the title becomes evident. La Statue de sel refers to Lot's wife in the Bible who looked back when leaving for a new life and was transformed into a statue of salt. Alexandre's task is to avoid looking back as it would constitute suicide through philosophical confusion in his quest for a new identity.
From Tunis Ghetto
Mother Berbere
Father Jewish Italian skilled bourrelier
Suffered triple alienation - Tunisian Jewish Poor
French lycee Carnot in Tunis
University Paris; alienated from homeland and family leads to desire to study identity
After Tunisian independence went to live in Paris; due to blinkered Muslim bourgeois government.
Has studied the colonized Jew, the black American, the proletariat.
Married a French Christian woman
SUMMARY OF THEMES OF "LA STATUE DE SEL"
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