Fleur

Pauline is the young narrator of “Fleur.” Pauline’s stepfather, Dutch, forces her do household work to replace her late mother and work at Kozka’s Meats instead of going to school. Pauline and her mother were brought to Argus from Lake Turcot by Dutch. Because of her looks and size—her back already curved due to overwork and her face hardened by caring for her mother while she died—Pauline is able to blend into the background of Kozka’s Meats. The men pay no attention to her, and only Fleur truly sees her. Pauling is as intrigued by Fleur as the men are and claims to be able to see past Fleur’s flesh into the animal-like presence beneath the surface. Pauline is alternately afraid of Fleur and admiring of Fleur’s beauty and power. Regardless, she cannot bring herself to help Fleur when she is assaulted. Instead, Pauline remains a witness even as Fleur calls her name.

As the narrator, Pauline attempts to center Fleur and the Kozka’s Meats men rather than herself. However, Pauline is the one who ultimately kills the men by locking them in the meat locker. Pauline implies that Fleur made her do it, but provides no tactile evidence for the claim, attributing Fleur’s influence to a voice on the wind. Whether or not to believe Pauline is up to the reader. An unreliable narrator, Pauline implies that she can be trusted because she alone knows everything that happened between the men and Fleur, but Pauline also notes secondhand information about Fleur that she says her grandmother told her. At the end, Pauline is the only one in Lake Turcot to visit Fleur and her baby, and she claims that the stories told about Fleur by others are not true because no one knows anything. This implies Pauline’s understanding of her own story about Fleur as subjective and invites skepticism from the reader.

Pauline also represents a different conception of female power that juxtaposes Fleur’s. Where Fleur is beautiful, strong, and mystical, Pauline is plain-looking and timid, her power coming from her ability to bear witness.