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Behaving Free

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Throughout the entire text of That Summer in Paris there is a persistent aura of being free, whether it was through artistic mediums, or merely arising out of the relaxed Parisian lifestyle that caused one to feel at ease with their surroundings.

After running a Voyant search we can see that the word ‘Free’ appears 14 times, often when referring to the laid back lifestyles of those who populated the French Quarter of Montparnasse. Particular instances of the word implores the readers to understand the significance that was attached to the Bohemian’s style of life, whose time spent at iconic cafes such as La Closerie des Lilas and Select, was built on the desire to be at a spiritual freedom with one another - as stated by Fitzgerald himself in Chapter 25 - “People should feel free with each other..”






Contrastingly with ‘Freedom’, I decided to search for ‘Behavior’ (and correlating variations) within the text. What is interesting, is the frequency with which the word appears given the dilettante culture of the time; occurring nine times. However, we soon come to understand the elevated usage through interactions with characters such as Ernest and Pauline Hemingway, whose strict perceptions on moral public conduct called for immaculate social behaviour. An instance of this can be seen in Chapter 24, where Callaghan recalls Hemingway repeatedly stating that “[one] didn’t know how to behave.” - Therein offering an extremely harsh social criticism and judgement.

A further understanding of this importance for accepted social behaviour is offered in Chapter 22,
where Scott recalls his great offence at being greeted to a friend’s home by a host in slippers. The implication being that the man did not respect him enough to change into appropriate footwear, and thus showing behaviour deviating from the standard norm.




This Voyant Word Trend visualization allows us to see the crossover and balance between ‘Freedom’, and ‘Behavior’, in Callaghan’s perception of 1920’s Paris. We can see through the use of Google Ngrams (below) that statistically ‘Freedom’ has maintained a moderately high usage throughout texts written between 1800 and present. However, it is interesting to note the spike in usage of the word ‘Behavior’, with the 1920’s presenting the moment for unprecedented growth. Perhaps this was the response of the Bourgeois to the bohemian culture of Europe, or perhaps it was the social behavioral conduct that was implemented by the leading figures of Callaghan’s community.




Callaghan, Morely. 1963. That summer in Paris: Memories of tangled friendships with Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald. London MacGibbon & Keehttp://fitzgerald.narod.ru/bio/callaghan-thatsum.html

Pizer, Donald. 1996. American Expatriate Writing and the Paris Moment: Modernism and Place,
Louisiana State University Press.

www.Voyant-tools.org

http://books.google.com/ngrams