When I first saw one of my favorite books, I read the title as The Vengeance of the Hedgehog, which, like any other person interested in unusual titles, immediately drew me in. However, upon further inspection, I realized the book had a rather bland title: The Elegance of the Hedgehog, written by Muriel Barbery, and I wondered what the book possibly had to offer. I didn’t want to bother with books that had to do with elegance or hedgehogs, but I still took a chance and read it, and to my surprise, it became one of the most important books I ever read. The Elegance of the Hedgehog is special in that it is a movement to put the debate of the true definition of beauty to an end and overthrow the overpowering control which stereotypes have. Barbery’s book revealed important themes of vanity and self-image that I feel are more essential than ever to make progress in an image-obsessed society and have people focus less on the external. Overall, The Elegance of the Hedgehog has been a true favorite of mine because it is a rebellion against contemporary society that taught me so much about beauty in people and in the world.

Set in France, The Elegance of the Hedgehog follows Renée Michel, who seems like another average, ugly concierge, and Paloma Josse, a privileged, upper class youth that lives in the apartment building which Renée looks over. Both are extremely intelligent, which the world has been too ignorant to understand, and they proceed in living life by observing the people around them. Unfortunately, for Paloma, life has taken her to the point where she decides suicide is the best way to escape the overly-pompous people, such as her sister and mother, that she must face everyday. As the days close in to her suicide, Paloma notices that Renée is actually quite cultured and is not the average concierge that everyone believes her to be, which Renée feels threatened by because she fears that Paloma will pull her out of the isolation that she hopes to die with. They still come to talk together, discussing philosophy and Japanese culture, and are overwhelmed when Ozu, a Japanese business man, moves in. Ozu teaches them both important lessons on internal beauty when it becomes evident that Paloma and Renée’s personalities are changing, in fact swapping. Renée decides that the correct way to live life is not in seclusion, and Paloma realizes that not everyone in the world is vain. Paloma ultimately chooses not to kill herself when Renée dies from the impact of a laundry van, as a way to honor her.

My intrigue with the book is mostly due to the characters and cultures which the author introduces. The main characters, Renée and Paloma, are a major aspect because I found their personalities to be ordinary yet unique at the same time. They are ordinary since, on a literal level, they are nothing more than a concierge and student, but Barbery somehow made it so that they were different and saw the world differently. One of the best examples of their individualism is how movement, by which I mean the actual action of moving, was a constant subject between the two. They both loved to simply watch the way a person would physically move, but the person’s emotions and soul didn’t seem to move, which isn’t something a lot of people notice. I believe that Renée and Paloma were a new side of humanity that made them powerful and observant. In addition, the different cultures that Barbery mentions was interesting because I never knew a lot about Japanese culture, as well as bits of English and French culture. For example, I was originally unfamiliar with the board game, Go, and I learned more about how it was played (as well as common misconceptions so hopefully then I won’t say anything that sounds foolish in the future). Other things, like habeas corpus or Japanese art, were thrown in there, and once again, revealed a world I had never noticed.

Like I mentioned before, image has come to dominate nearly all aspects of the world these days, but this book proves otherwise. The whole world is not simply a population of 7 billion filled with vain people, hoping to achieve fame or money. There are still people out there that believe in the power of emotions and culture who are the true people that can transform the world. To me, the book defied all common images of beauty, and helped me realize that internal beauty had not all disappeared. The Elegance of the Hedgehog has also made me discover a little about myself since I originally had a very narrow view on life and believed it was always better to stay quiet and isolated. With Renée as a very reserved person, I found she was very easy to relate to, and just like her, I would have been intimidated when Paloma noticed that she was more cultured than people thought. However I eventually learned that it was sometimes good to be more outgoing as Renée had learned too.

In today’s image obsessed society, the true definition of beauty has been debated, in addition to the overpowering control which stereotypes have on popular culture. It seems that this debate and overpowering control will never cease, but with books, like The Elegance of the Hedgehog, change can come sooner than one will think. As the cliche goes, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” and The Elegance of the Hedgehog exemplifies this. All people should know that we all can learn from each other and appreciate the world from new viewpoints.