In the first half of Swann's Way, I thought Swann would be someone I could really look up to. He seemed to be able to function for every social clique and was above the constraints of both upper and middle class culture. He was educated and appreciated the arts. But then Swann in Love happened; how could such an amazing individual get hung up on a manipulative creature like Odette?
Marcel makes some amazing observations about humanity: "Three-quarters of the mental ingenuity and the mendacious boasting squandered ever since the world began by people who are cheapened thereby, have been aimed at inferiors" (209). In modern American culture this is apparent in countless ways. People seem to use every possible way to prove they are better than their neighbors by competing with the Joneses. The rat race is completely ridiculous and Proust explicitly states that those who attempt to elevate themselves about the rest of society are "cheapened" because the squander so much of their time and energy. Those who try to compete are often left unsatisfied and discontent. It is a shame that humanity has become more involved with this behavior since Proust published ROTP.
The use of flowers in ROTP continues to amaze me. The flower Odette gives to Swann in that fateful carriage ride is none other than the chrysanthemum (239). Chrysanthemums are the flower of the dead. They are often placed on graves to remember the departed. This could be no accident: the flower seems to represent Swann's loss of life and vitality and his enslavement to Odette. Also the cattleya mentioned repeatedly in Swann in Love refers to an orchid that takes 5-7 years to bloom. After years of cultivating this stick, you have a beautiful flower for 10 days and then it dies. The effort is not worth the reward. Similarly, the effort Swann puts into the relationship is not worth the reward that he obtains.
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