For this essay I have chosen to investigate the character of Joseph in Louis Malle's "Au revoir, les enfants." I hope to show how he turns from the friend of Julien and the boys only source of life's luxuries to a traitor and Julien's enemy.
Immediately from the start of the book, we see that Joseph is the kind of person who will do anything to gain something for himself; this will become especially evident later in the book. We see him dealing on the black market selling the boys goods for higher than regular prices. However we also see how he is treated because he is lower class than the pupils when one of the boys does him a raw deal. The personal gain factor becomes very evident when Julien asks him for some stamps. He says no but when he realises that Julien has jam which the doctor's wife likes, he does the deal;.
"La femme du docteur, elle raffole de ta confiote. Ca lui cale les ovaires.".
When Joseph realises he will gain from this deal, he jumps at the chance but he never even considered it just as a favour to Julien. Throughout the novel we see Joseph conduct more operations for self benefit and we see him develop as an important character to the boy's well-being. .
Later on in the book after we discover that another of the characters Jean Bonnet, a Jew in hiding is actually named Jean Kippelstein Joseph discovers this as well. Joseph discovering this is from him being around all of the people in the school and him knowing most things that go on. In the end this turns out to be bad for both Jean and Julien.
The story progresses and Joseph is sacked from the school after he is discovered selling things to the pupils. We can see he is very bitter because of this and will do anything to get revenge on the people who lost him his job. He is also angry that the pupils did not get in trouble as they were as much to do with the trades as he was.
In the final scene of the novel we really see just how evil and disloyal Joseph is.
