Paris Red by Maureen Gibbon gives an unconventional coming of age story. In most coming-of-age movies or books we meet the character as usually a naive young boy or girl that goes through some kind of struggle that makes them grow and makes us as readers consider our own evolutions. Paris Red does not do this. Our main character, Victorine is only seventeen but seems to know so much about the world’s harshness and its beauty. She knows hard work , heartache, and the body of a man. She even says herself that when she was a child she would ignore older people’s warnings about life so that she would be able to experience it fully ,the way she wanted to. Victorine thinks that because she is seventeen and experienced, she knows the world. She mentions this very often, usually saying phrases like “I am seventeen and neither my mother’s rule nor my father’s love could change me. I do not care what anyone else thinks except for Nise.” Saying this makes it seem like she is trying to convince herself that she knows what she is doing or what situation she is getting into, the clearest example of this is when she first kisses Manet she says “ I am seventeen and that moment I understand that when a man is hungry like that, what he really needs is to have something taken from him.” Victorine is already a very developed young lady and does not actually do much growing without the story. We see her learn about art and how she eventually became an artist herself, but for her character development there is little to mention.
We obviously see that there is a huge age gap and power struggle between Manet and Victorine, that Victorine is both consciously and unconsciously aware of. Within the story,an idea is brought up about the issue of who actually pays in the end? Since Manet takes care of Victorine financially as well emotionally she is very dependent on him. An important quote to explain this is “It is not always so clear what someone wants, or what money can buy, or who exactly pays.” Victorine first notices that her relationship with Manet is more complicated than just being lovers, when Manet leaves her for the first time. She has little money left from the last time she was paid, she thought about how her rent was already paid but he is the one who pays it, she also finally notices that she has lost her best friend in order to gain him. This relationship is basically textbook grooming but because of the time it is set in it is seen as acceptable.
Based on my own research I find it odd that Gibbon made the character seventeen when Victorine was eighteen when she met Manet. There was also no evidence to show that her and Manet’s relationship was even sexual even though the whole story is based on their sexual experiences with each other. In fact their sexual relations take up most the story to the point where it feels that there is no plot and this simply a story about a young woman’s rise into fame by using her sex.