The Family Under The Bridge

The motif of pride recurs throughout the novel. When Madame Calcet arrives the first night and declares that the family “are not beggars” because she has a job, Armand thinks, “this woman’s trouble was pride, and that pride and life under the bridge weren’t going to work out well together” (19). Despite this wisdom, Armand himself is a proud man. When Monsieur Latour suggests that Armand and the children don’t belong in the Louvre department store, Armand affects his haughtiness and insults the store itself (35). Later, when Madame Calcet forbids the children to have anything to do with Armand, he “proudly [rises] to his knobby shoes” and speaks “haughtily” in response to her (47). This sets up Armand and Madame Calcet as foils: similar in character but opposite in approach. Pride, Armand thinks, is what keeps a family like the Calcets from begging—and thus from surviving without a home. In contrast, Armand takes pride in the very lifestyle that others look down upon. He defends his friends as well, such as when he claims that the Roma people have a “right” to be proud of their “fine metalwork” (71). He challenges Madame Calcet’s view of the Roma people and asks if she can “mend a pan that has half of the bottom burned out” (71), showing that he sees worth in aspects of life that mainstream society overlooks.

As Madame Calcet is forced to accept aid from people she once refused to associate with, she begins to lose some of her pride. To her, staying with her children is more important than being proud, and she resigns herself to doing whatever it takes to keep her family together. Meanwhile, Armand comes to admit that he, too, cares about the Calcet children enough to make sacrifices for them. For Armand, this means relinquishing the unbound lifestyle he adores. Once he realizes that living without a home prevents him from caring for the Calcets, he begins to feel ashamed of being unable to provide for them. Madame Calcet and Armand meet in the middle: After a moment of mutual hesitation, Madame Calcet accepts Armand’s offer to find a job and join their family.

The last few lines of the novel highlight Armand’s new pride at his change in circumstances: “He raised his head so that the points of his beard were thrust forward. He straightened his shoulders in the mended coat. He wasn’t a hobo anymore. He was a workingman of Paris” (123). Though the novel works to humanize unhoused people, its conclusion, and Armand’s change in posture in particular, promotes the idea that pride is earned through work and responsibility.