A day in the life of Odette, daughter of the French Revolution

“Grandma, I will tell you everything from the day the States General
met. The night before, Dad gathered Pierre, Nicole and me and told
us that the king had summoned them to address the crisis of
hunger, poverty and discontent in France. I don't know if you in the
countryside have had problems feeding yourself; but here in Paris it
is almost impossible to find flour. Mom has to stand in lines for hours
to get just a few grams and pay dearly.

On the day of the States General we went out into the street to see
the deputies who were heading towards Versailles. I will never be
able to forget those two hundred deputies dressed entirely in black
who represented the Third Estate, us; to town! [...] After the deputies
came the nobles, so elegant, dressed in lace, hats with feathers and
suits trimmed in gold. In its wake, the voices that had enlivened the
people's deputies were abruptly silenced. Nor was there any
acclaim for the men of the Church who followed them.

Afterwards, my brothers and I accompanied mother to the Marquise

de Chambord's house to give her a dress. When we arrived [...] a
footman in a green velvet livery opened the door for us and showed us into the living room, [...] the
walls were covered in a crimson fabric and tapestries with hunting scenes hung over them. The
mirrors over the three fireplaces multiplied the room and, although it was three in the afternoon, the
chandeliers were lit. Do you realize the waste? [...] The marchioness wore a blue satin dress
bordered with cream-colored lace. Her hairstyle was high, with a voluminous bun made of hundreds
of curls. Mom handed her the dress and the woman, instead of paying, complained about the delay.

“Excuse me, Madam Marquise,” my mother said, embarrassed, “but these days it is so difficult to
get the threads... Besides, you don't know how much time I waste waiting in lines to get food.

The marquise pretended not to hear and offered us some anise rolls [...]; Otherwise, he didn't even
pay for the dress and told her to come back later.

Do you remember when the priests and nobles did not want to join with the people in the Estates
General and the Third Estate became the National Assembly? Well, it happened that the
representatives of the Third Estate solemnly swore “not to separate further until the Constitution is
established and founded.” My father told me that from that moment on the king would have to
govern with the National Assembly.

On Sunday, July 12, when it was learned that the king had fired Necker 1 , his Minister of Finance.
My dad and his friends commented that Necker defended us and that without him the poor would
have even less bread and even more taxes. From that moment, people began to take to the streets
shouting: 'To arms, patriots!'

That night, when Dad returned from his work in the workshop, he was bruised and a trickle of blood
ran down his forehead. He told us that he was coming through the Tuileries 2 when he saw a crowd
gathering around a deputy from the Third Estate who was haranguing the people saying: 'Necker
has been fired, we can't wait any longer: we have to resort to arms!'. He was in the middle of the
speech when a troop of soldiers on horseback burst into the room and rushed into the crowd,
injuring many. My dad woke up lying on the floor

That night several people came to our house to warn us: it was said that the king and the nobles
would join forces to massacre the people. And they told us that the Parisians, to defend themselves,
were looting all the weapons depots in the city.
That night Marie came to look for me and told me that her father and older brothers had left for Les
Invalides 3 , as had my father, and she suggested that we follow them. And when the church bells
struck six in the morning, Marie and I found ourselves in the middle of a huge crowd. The people
crowded in front of the Invalides. Some citizens distributed rifles; others had cannons. Voices began
to be heard shouting 'To the Bastille, to look for gunpowder for our cannons'. The sun was high
when the tumult reached the towers of the Bastille, which contained the gunpowder arsenals. An old
man with a beard announced loudly: 'The governor refuses to lower the bridge.'

Then a terrible roar was heard: the first picket of men had cut the bridge chains with ax blows. A
wave of men rushed across it. And at that moment the first shots came out from the fortress. Oh,
grandmother: the wounded and the dead began to fall! A burst of cannons ended up destroying the
last doors of the Bastille and the fortress was invaded. It seemed as if all of Paris had entered the
Bastille. At that moment we ran until we got home. Dad came back very late, he was pale and dirty,
and he told us: 'The Bastille fell. I have seen the governor's head on the point of a bayonet.'

The days that followed we were very scared for you. News arrived that gangs of criminals were
stealing in the fields; They burned and looted everything in their path. We also learned of peasants
who burned down castles and of many deaths. Days later my father said that we were going to
celebrate because now we were all free and equal. This is what the first words of the Declaration of
the Rights of Man and the Citizen solemnly proclaimed by the National Assembly said.

“The king, as Odette thought, would not solve the people's problems nor would he have a long life.
The bloodiest events had not yet begun. For peace to be established in France, many people would
have to die; among them Odette's father [...].”
Taken from Balcells and Güiraldes. A day in the life of Odette, daughter of the French Revolution,
Chile, Editora Zig-zag, 1993.

Now that you have read the text carefully and taken note of the main ideas, answer in your
notebook.

1. Who are the main and secondary characters in the story? Identify which of the three classes
each of them belongs to.

2. What is the situation of each class according to Odette's story? How is the relationship
between them? In what parts of Odette's story is this relationship alluded to?

3. According to Odette, why does the Revolution occur?

4. What was the climate like during the days of the Revolution? What changed in the lives of
Odette, her family and the rest of the French after the Revolution?

5. Why do you think the French Revolution is studied in history classes? What importance can
the changes promoted by this revolution represent for reflection on today's world?

_______________________
1 Financier and minister of Louis XVI. He tried to force the nobles to comply with their tax obligations but was not very successful.
2 Tuileries. Former palace and residence of the kings of France, in Paris.
3 The Invalids. The National Palace of the Invalides was created in the 17th century as a residence for soldiers retired from service. It
houses Napoleon's tomb