This book is about a man's desire to escape from the French Prison system of the 1930's.



Papillion was a small time thief who was wrongly accused of murder. He was sentenced to life. Throughout his eleven years of being in various prisons, mostly French, he tried at least 8 times to return to freedom.

I felt there were two underlining themes to the book. One, which I think will hold true even today with our more modern thinking, is who can actually say when a man is reformed. To me is seems that everyone is saying that a man can't change unless he wants to. Papillion wasn't a murderer, even though he was a petty thief.



The second theme I sense was there is a man should never give up trying no matter where his life had lead him. Papillion tried eight times to escape prison. He actually succeeded twice to leave the confines of French prison, both escapes were daring and without great loss. And when he found himself on a foreign soil and in prison again he kept trying to escape. Finally he found Venezuala and they eventually released him from his life sentence.

After reading this book I spent a lot of time thinking about some of the things that I want in my life. Papillion wanted his revenge on the people who put in prison, but more importantly he wanted his life back. I can relate to wanting something that everyday you strive for that goal. You may not advance a step on a daily basis but after time you can achieve your goals.

Henri Charriere admits that as a writer he has his shortcomings. I believe this alone made me realize that some day I could be a published author.

Because of the underlying themes.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Papillon   from Amazon.Com!

Created Oct 09, 2002 at 9:41am • Submit your own review...