Atala (Chateaubriant)

Summary

The old Indian Natchez Chactas made to the young Rene French the account of what he lived at twenty years on banks of Meschacebé, the Mississippi. Chactas, wire adoptive of a Christian named Lopez, was prisoner, but Atala, a young Indian of Christian education, saved it. They fled both through the forest and after there having a long time wandered met a missionary, the Aubry father, who undertook to link Chactas and Atala by the bonds of the marriage by converting Chactas with Christianity. But the latter regards as a final engagement the dedication to the Virgin whose it was the object. Refusing to break its engagement with the profit of its love for Chactas, Atala chooses death.

Study of work

The novel of Chateaubriant is in fact a praise of Christianity through the adventures of Chactas saved by the Atala virgin. The meeting of the Aubry father and his small community serves this magnificence while defending the savages whose manners can be softened thanks to the " vraie" religion (causes which in particular Chateaubriand defended).

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