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into the novel through the multinational character of Flora's theatrical
roles - British, Irish, and Italian, to name those most relevant to the
question of immigration to Quebec - but such a combination has also
been configured by the landscape. A mere two paragraphs after the de-
scription of the 'first garden' Flora and Raphaël ponder the changes
brought to it by subsequent generations and waves of immigrants, all
of which remain as parts of Quebec's composite identity:
Les enfants et les petits-enfants, à leur tour, ont refait des jardins, à l'image
du premier jardin, se servant de graines issues de la terre nouvelle. Peu à
peu, à mesure que les générations passaient, l'image mère s'est effacée
dans les mémoires. Ils ont arrangé les jardins à leur idée et à l'idée du pays
auquel ils ressemblaient de plus en plus. Ils ont fait de même pour les
églises et les maisons de ville et de campagne … Les Anglais sont venus,
les Écossais et les Irlandais. Ils avaient des idées et des images bien à eux
pour bâtir des maisons, des magasins, des rues et des places, tandis que
l'espace des jardins reculait vers la campagne. [77-8; The children and
grandchildren in their turn remade the gardens in the image of the first
one, using seeds that the new earth had yielded. Little by little, as genera-
tions passed, the mother image has been erased from their memories.
They have arranged the gardens to match their own ideas and to match
the idea of the country they come more and more to resemble. They have
done the same with churches, and with houses in town and in the country
… The English came, and the Scots, and the Irish. They had their own
ideas and images for houses, stores, streets, and public squares, while the
space for gardens receded into the countryside. (60-1)]
Just as the landscape is no longer purely French, no more so are its in-
habitants: neither those of original French origin, nor those who came
from other lands, but who nonetheless are part of today's Quebec.
The young Flora does not yet know that she will inevitably become
an actress, but she does vow to forge her own name, her own identity,
based on multiple, malleable selves: 'Un jour viendra où elle choisira
son propre nom, et ce sera le nom secret, caché dans son cœur, depuis
la nuit des temps, le seul et l'unique qui la désignera entre tous et lui
permettra toutes les métamorphoses nécessaires à la vie.' (65; The day
will come when she will choose her own name, and it will be the secret
name, hidden in her heart since the dawn of time, the one and only
name that will designate her among all others, and allow her all the
metamorphoses needed for her life [48].) The discovery of that name
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