Thoughts on The Life of an Unremarkable Person

     Picture a man who strongly dislikes change.  Dutilleul thrives on the unvarying routine of his daily life, wears old-fashioned clothing, and does not want to try anything new, even something as simple as the way he addresses a letter.  This is the type of character that I can strongly identify with in almost every respect.  I, like Dutilleul, love routine.  My favorite corduroy jacket looks exactly like one from my favorite 1929 movie, and I also strongly dislike change.  Perhaps because of this similarity, but also because of the delightful style and humor, I highly enjoyed Marcel Ayme’s The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls.

Suddenly and by accident, this predictable and ordinary man discovers that he possesses an unusual talent – he can walk through solid walls.  As if this peculiarity was as simple as the common cold, he goes to see a doctor.  The doctor also views Dutilleul’s complaint as something seen every day, and prescribes him pills made of tetravalent pirette powder, ground rice, and centaur hormones.  These pills, along with exercise, are sure to cure Dutilleul’s dreaded abnormality.   This particular passage leaves me extremely curious concerning the variety of doctor that Dutilleul consulted. 

Dutilleul calmly accepts the doctor’s diagnosis and decides not to make any further use of his unusual talent.  He still enters his house by the front door.  He still goes to work as always, still dressed in his old-fashioned clothes, and he still addresses his letters in his customary old-fashioned manner.  This resolve begins to change when Dutilleul finds himself working under a new manager, Monsieur Lécuyer.   Monsieur Lécuyer tries to change and update everything, including the old-fashioned way that Dutilleul addresses letters.  Dutilleul resists, and “disgusted by this backward willfulness, which compromised the success of his reforms, Monsieur Lécuyer relegated Dutilleul to a poorly-lit closet next to his own office. One ...labeled with the following inscription: TRASH.”  This creates enough resentment to inspire Dutilleul to put is head through the wall of Monsieur Lécuyer’s office, and in a scene which fully displays the author’s sense of humor, he calls his boss the nastiest names he can think of: “Monsieur, you are a brute, a boor, and a rascal.”  Dutilleul continues to penetrate the wall of his manager’s office, and after gaining more courage, severely frightens his manager with tales of werewolves.  Within a few days, the nice people in white coats come to take Monsieur Lécuyer to a home for the psychologically disturbed.  At this point, I am beginning to wish I could walk through walls myself. 
 "The first burglary that Dutilleul carried out took place in a large credit establishment on the right bank.” This particular line came as a surprise, as there had been no previous indications of Dutilleul’s criminal tendencies. Such surprises as this keep readers on the edge of their seats throughout the story.  Dutilleul, once very timid, began to outright brag about his villainous escapades.   After all, no prison can hold a man who walks through walls.  He began to wear more modern clothes and became more outspoken.  And he even began to chase women, which led ultimately to his undoing.  In combating a headache, he mistook his centaur hormone pills for aspirin.   Later, in a nocturnal visit to a beautiful blonde, Dutilleul became stuck in a solid wall, where he remains to this day. 

     Yes, this is ultimately a story about the potential of power to bring about corruption.  In the beginning of the story, Dutilleul is very much on the boring end of ordinary.  His acquaintances would not believe him to be capable of crime.  With the discovery of an unusual talent, Dutilleul found within himself the potential for crime, and does things that he would have considered himself incapable of only a few weeks before.  Whether studied as an allegory warning against the corrupting influence of power or simply enjoyed as an account of a man with an unusual talent, The Man Who Walks Through Walls is a fun story to read.