During an interim in Gerry's education, Mother engages the Belgian consul to teach Gerry French. The Belgian consul is always dressed as though he's preparing for an important meeting with someone, and his living room where he conducts Gerry's lessons is decorated in red brocade and photos of himself in Napoleonic poses. He's a great cat lover and keeps three cats of his own. He also takes it upon himself to attempt to control the stray cat population in Corfu, which is overwhelmingly sickly and undernourished. He and Gerry observe moments of silence after the consul shoots stray cats out the window, an event that happens multiple times each day.
The Belgian Consul Quotes in My Family and Other Animals
The My Family and Other Animals quotes below are all either spoken by The Belgian Consul or refer to The Belgian Consul. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 2, Chapter 9
Quotes
He was, in fact, performing a very necessary and humane service, as anyone who had seen the cats would agree. So my lessons in French were being continuously interrupted while the consul leaped to the window to send yet another cat to a happier hunting ground.
Related Characters:Gerry Durrell (speaker), The Belgian Consul
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
117
Explanation and Analysis:
Gerry explains why the Belgian consul shoots stray cats out his window. Notably, Gerry conceptualizes the consul's actions as being humane, which suggests that even though Gerry is seeing the Belgian consul to learn French, he's actually learning far more useful lessons in how to properly care for animals. Though Gerry is never faced with having to put down any of his own animals to relieve them from suffering over the course of the novel, this lesson here certainly makes it clear to Gerry that his responsibilities towards his animals extend to ensuring that his animals experience deaths that are Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut
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The Belgian Consul Character Timeline in My Family and Other Animals
The timeline below shows where the character The Belgian Consul appears in My Family and Other Animals. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 2, Chapter 9: The World in a Wall
...and Mother decides that it's time for Gerry to receive more education. She engages the Belgian consul to tutor Gerry in French.
(full context)
For their first lesson, the Belgian consul asks Gerry to read from a French book. After Gerry reads a few words, the...
(full context)
It takes Gerry a week to discover that the Belgian consul is shooting the starving and sickly cats that breed unchecked in his neighborhood. He's a...
(full context)
The Belgian consul believes that Mother speaks French and tries to engage her in conversation whenever he sees...
(full context)