The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

On September 11, Malte Laurids Brigge observes a scene taking place on a street in Paris. He sees a pregnant woman shuffling toward the maternity hospital. He passes military hospitals, shelters for poor people, and a sick child left in a pram. Brigge notes the intense smell of the city and the inhabitants' constant struggle to stay alive. Despite the smell and the noise, Brigge cannot sleep with the window closed. The noises are almost overwhelming, but the silence is "more terrible" (49) as it implies imminent danger or violence. The experience of the city for these last three weeks is changing Brigge, but he does not want to tell people that he has changed. He has studied the changing faces of people in the city.

Brigge admits that he is afraid. He is scared to be taken to a hospital, as he is sure that he would die there. Funeral carriages are seen frequently on the streets of Paris and people are forced to reckon with their own deaths on a daily basis. Death seems to Brigge to be merely a prelude to an inevitable funeral and "the array of amazing rituals that come with it" (51).