Jay Dwivedi

If you enjoyed Crainquebille by Anatole France, you will love this one even more.  While the story of Putois is the writer’s effort to point out how human beings and societies always look for a scapegoat, it is also a very insightful look into how myths become so real.  Have you ever wondered how almost everyone on the planet believes in some kind of a God or supernatural power with zero evidence available for the existence of God?  This story helps to answer the mystery by showing that ordinary humans love stories that simplify the world for them and it does not have to make any sense at all.  Read this passage from the story.

Monsieur Bergeret looked at her reproachfully.  “What a thing to say, Zoé! Why spoil the story? And do you still maintain that Putois did not exist? Can you maintain it? Before affirming that Putois did not exist, that Putois never was, did you give adequate thought to the conditions of existence and the modes of being? Putois existed, sister. But it is true that his was an extraordinary kind of existence.”

Monsieur Bergeret and his sister Zoé are telling the story to a little girl Pauline about their childhood in the suburbs of Saint-Omer.  Putois was a non-existent gardener who their mother invented to avoid visiting a boring great aunt every weekend in Monplaisir (whenever she did not feel like going, she told her that Putois will be coming to work in the garden and she needed to be home).  In no time, the existence of the never reliable, always unpredictable and sloppy Putois, became so real to the residents that he was always seen walking in the streets and even committing crimes.  People talked about hiring him to get work done in their yards to women implying that he made them pregnant.

Here is the end of the story when a maid reported that Putois was at their door and wanted to speak to the madame.  She sent her back to ask him what he wanted but he wasn’t there any more.  “This encounter of the new servant with Putois was never explained.  But I think from that day my mother began to believe that Putois might possibly exist, and that perhaps she had not lied after all.”