The Imagery of the Ambush - “We are Caught in an Ambush”
Francois narrates, “He (the leader) did not touch Meaulnes. Instead, he watched his soldiers as they took him on, and had a hard time of it: dragged through the snow, with their clothes ripped from top to bottom, they struggled against the tall boy, who was panting as he fought. Two of them were looking after me and had immobilized me with some difficulty, because I was fighting like a devil. I was on the ground, my knees bent, sitting back on my heels, while they held me with my hands behind my back as I watched what was happening with intense curiosity and anxiety.” Francois and Meaulnes are entrapped unexpectedly. With the exception of the leader, the boys are familiar to them for they are their schoolmates. While trailing they figures, they had not anticipated that a mob was waiting to assail them. The large number of the assaulters imperils them in the combat.
The Imagery of Winter - “The Boarder”
Francois recalls, “In winter, that was how we often spent our Sundays. In the morning, my father would set off for some distant pond shrouded in mist, to fish for pike from a boat, and my mother, retiring until nightfall to her dark bedroom, would darn her simple clothes. She shut herself up in that way because she was afraid that someone or other, one of her friends as poor as she was, and as proud, might catch her at it. So, after Vespers, I would wait in the cold dining room, reading, until she opened the door to show me how the clothes looked on her." Francois's is utterly isolated due to the divergent schedules which govern the parents during the winters. The coldness which is omnipresent in ‘ the dining room’ contributes to Francois’ solitude.
