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2. “MISSING PERSON”
by PATRICK MODIANO
The Novel Prize in Literature 2014
Discussant:
RICSHELL V. BULUTANO
MAED- English

3. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jean Patrick Modiano,
generally known as
Patrick Modiano, is a
French novelist and
recipient of the 2014
Nobel Prize in
Literature. He is a
noted writer of
autofiction, the blend

4. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

5. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

6. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

8. PLOT SUMMARY

9. CHARACTERS
Guy Roland
The story’s
protagonist. He lost
his memory during
the war. He worked
as a private detective
and tries to recover
his past throughout
the novel.
Constantine van
Hutte
The head of the
detective agency who
gives guy his new
identity. He retires to
Nice early in the
story.
Paul Sonachidtze
Guy’s starting point
in his journey.

10. Jean Heurteur
A restaurateur and a
friend of Sonachidtze.
Mr. Styoppa de
Dzhagorev
A Russian immigrant.
Gay Orlov
Another Russian
immigrant. Died of a
drug overdose.
CHARACTERS

11. Robert
French model and
the protagonist’s
girlfriend during the
war.
Claude Howard de
Luz
Cousin of Howard de
Luz.
Freddie( Alfred
Jean) Howard de
Luz
Friend of Pedro. A
confidant of John
Gilbert( second
husband of Gay
Orlov).
CHARACTERS
Waldo Blunt
Denise
Coudreuse
Groundskeeper of the
Howard de Luz
estate.
The pianist husband
of Gay Orlov.

12. •Time and milieu

13. •Time and milieu
●Guy Roland is an amnesiac detective who lost his
memory ten years before the beginning of the story,
which opens in 1965. His investigations uncover
clues to a life that seems to stop during the Second
World War.
● The story revolves around a terrible event that
happened during the Nazi occupation of France.
In the pre- internet days( the novel is set
in 1965) .

14. THEMES
● A common theme found in metaphysical fiction and post-
modern literature in general is the non- solution ending.
Modiano’s narrators, “ while apparently driven by a desire
to understand similar to that of the reader, do not reorder
events into a coherent picture, ultimately choosing to leave
their narratives open- ended. This non- solution ending
forces us to examine the clues more closely and try to
understand what could more important or essential that
the solving of the crime. In this case, it is the nature of the
memory and identity. The concept of identity is the highly
stylized theme in this novel.

15. Literary device
● One of Patrick Modiano’s hallmark literary devices
is his characters are often in search of one another;
from long lost lover, to an individual from the past.
But with “ Missing Person”, Guy Roland is in search of
himself and best describes his predicaments as such:
“ I am nothing. Nothing but a pale shape, silhouetted
that evening against the café terrace, waiting for the
rain to stop.”

16. •Moral lesson
●Identity is built upon one thing, the
past. We become who we are through the
accumulation of memories and
experiences. The only thing we really
build in life is our identity. Yes, the
future gives us some sense of trajectory,
of purpose but then it is the past that
controls the future. You were, therefore
you are.

17. Intellectual value
● The novel presents that the nature of
the self is more perplexing and entails a
deeper suspense than a common thriller.
The reflection on how we construe
ourselves., whether out of our recorded
memories, or through our imagination,
or from the echoes we perceive from the
way others see us, is admirably
expanded in this beautiful novel.

18. Emotional value
In this novel, we can all ask
ourselves, ‘ what is the purpose of
my life?’, ‘why am I here? We ask
these questions to bring some sense
of order in this business of living. We
are looking for direction, a future.
We are looking for a map to tell us
which road to travel on, which path
to take. Not a bad plan for life.

19. Spiritual value
The novel is also a meditation
on identity and what makes a
person who he or she is. It asks
interesting questions on what
and who we are – whether we are
the products of our pasts, or
whether what we do and think in
the present or whether we are a
summation or our future
potential.

20. permanence
This novel about the self tells us that
oftentimes we are too busy looking
for our identity in the past, asking
too many questions about our
purpose in the future, that a result is
a life of asking and searching instead
of one of living. Life need not to be
so complicated. Looking forward and
backward is so inevitable, we cannot
stop doing that, but never ever fail to
focus on the now.

21. Most of the people all over the world
are still experiencing the challenge of
finding themselves and delving into
the past is obviously a good place to
start, with a little help of course,
slowly picking up pieces of
information here and there that
begins to bring back small moments
and details that unravel a life
forgotten.
universality

22. THANK YOU!