The Interrogation: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Interrogation: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the complex psychological landscape of Adam Pollo, a troubled and solitary figure. At 29, Adam grapples with severe mental health issues, including violent schizophrenia and manic-depression, which distort his grasp on reality and lead him to live in a state of confusion and uncertainty. He has created an imaginary relationship with Michèle, a woman whose existence is questionable, reflecting his deep struggles with guilt and hallucination.
The narrative also introduces Adam's mother, Denise, who exists only through her letters, providing a grounding perspective against Adam's delusions, and a young nurse in the psychiatric facility who represents a semblance of order in his chaotic life. Other characters, such as Julienne, a psychology student, and a professor conducting Adam's interrogation, contribute to the understanding of his condition and the broader implications of mental illness. Through these interactions, the story delves into themes of reality versus illusion, the impact of familial relationships, and the search for connection in a fragmented mind. The analysis invites readers to consider the profound complexities of identity and sanity in the context of Adam's harrowing experience.
The Interrogation: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
Alternate Title: Le Procès-Verbal
First published: 1963 (English translation, 1964)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Carros, France
Plot: Surrealist literature
Time: Early 1960s
Adam Pollo, a solitary, antisocial, disturbed, and unemployed individual. Adam, tall, tanned, bearded, and thin, with a slightly pointed head, cannot remember whether he is a military deserter or a mental asylum escapee. He is incapable of accurately recalling details from the past or planning for the future and thus lives uncertainly only in the present, always questioning himself, his motives, and the details of his existence. Twenty-nine years old, Adam is an intelligent, educated, but highly unreliable narrator with violent schizophrenic, paranoid, and manic-depressive tendencies. He resides in a house he has broken into outside a French Riviera resort village; the owners are away for the summer. Adam subsists mainly on cigarettes, beer, and charity, alternating between frenetic activity and complete lethargy. His mind meanwhile treads a fine line between sanity and insanity, and he is constantly plagued by fears and horrific visions of nature in revolt that both attract and repel him. Adam experiences moments of apparent lucidity among long periods divorced from reality. His world grows more fragmented and illusory, more crowded with extraneous information generated by a confused brain as he spirals toward madness. One day he incoherently harangues a gathering of people on the street, is taken into custody, and is confined in a psychiatric facility, where it is suggested he may remain for the rest of his life.
Michèle, a young woman who may exist or may be only a figment of Adam's imagination. Adam has invented a whole history involving him and Michèle, complete with vacations in the mountains, motorcycle trips, visits to cafes and restaurants, games they played, lengthy conversations, and more; it is impossible to distinguish what, if anything, actually transpired between them, and what is completely made up. Adam is certain he has raped her and has possibly impregnated her. He believes that despite his irrational behavior she occasionally keeps company with him, his only friend and sole contact with the world outside his own mind. Incapable of uninhibited verbal expression in her ethereal presence, Adam scrawls in a notebook fragments of poetry and long, never-sent letters detailing bizarre notions addressed to Michèle.
Denise Pollo, Adam's mother. She is never seen but provides an element of reality as a counterbalance to Adam's fantasies. Denise is revealed to be a caring, concerned parent through a letter to her son written in response to a brusque note from Adam. From the letter, readers learn that Adam has a brother named Philippe, that Adam ran away as a teenager over a trivial incident, and that his father has a quick temper, a trait that Adam apparently inherited.
A black dog that Adam follows on several occasions. Unnamed, with no breed given, the dog appears daily at the beach where Adam sits observing sunbathers and mentally creating stories about their lives. Adam imitates the dog's actions, splashing in the sea, licking himself, sniffing where the animal sniffs, and watching enviously as the dog mates with another dog.
A large white rat that Adam discovers in the house where he squats. It has a pink nose and blue eyes, and its fur is a color not commonly found in nature. Adam, upon spotting the rat, instantly becomes angry and hurls billiard balls at the animal. Feeling he is metamorphosing into a white rat, Adam stalks and kills the creature and throws its body into a thorn bush.
A nurse in the mental hospital where Adam is placed. A young, attractive woman with reddish-blond hair, she inserts sanity into Adam's life. The nurse imposes order upon his world, informing him of daily routines, which require Adam to make his bed and sweep his room every day.
Julienne R., a student of psychology. Julienne is in her early twenties, slender, very pretty, and sympathetic. She questions Adam about his past and why he is in the mental hospital.
A professor of psychology. A middle-aged man in his late forties who uses lavender-scented mineral water, he leads the group of students conducting the interrogation of Adam at the mental hospital. The professor gently admonishes the students not to jump to conclusions but tells them that Adam is insane, based upon tests that were administered when Adam was admitted. His diagnosis of Adam includes paranoid delirium, hypochondria, megalomania, persecution mania, sexual deviation, and mental confusion.
Simon “Sim” Tweedsmuir, the name of a person that Adam suddenly says he remembers during his interrogation at the mental hospital. Sim has many things in common with Adam. Like Adam, he was a victim of his father's abuse. Adam notes that Sim was a good if antisocial student, particularly in Latin composition and algebra, at a Jesuit school, from which he was expelled—facts that apply equally to Adam. Finally, Adam claims Tweedsmuir spent two years as an animal, devoted himself to Satan, was immersed in magic, and was afflicted with syphilis.