It seems to me that the entire novel is based on this "eternal human enigma", and each character’s most prominent confliction throughout the novel is deciphering what is more important: wealth or spirit. Jean is a great example of someone who sacrifices his spirit for wealth. Everything about Florentine’s poverty makes him sick. He builds a wall between his actions and his emotions, and does not allow himself to sympathize or love anyone. As a result, by sacrificing his spirit, he also sacrifices all of his relationships with people, and is left with a life of solitude, and, perhaps, personal wealth with no one to share it with.

Throughout the entire novel, the reader is forced not to forget about the Lacasse family’s poverty. Their situation seemingly puts a spin on this idea of the “eternal human enigma”. They do not have the option of choosing between wealth and spirit. In a way, it seems that their intensely deprived lifestyle puts a heavy burden and weight on all of their spirits. Rose-Anna’s mother might say that this deprived lifestyle is the route to redemption. In doing so however, wealth and true happiness are also sacrificed in order to redeem themselves.

Just by trying to answer this question for myself right now, it’s clear to me that this is a very complicated matter without a direct answer. Thus, I do not believe “The Tin Flute” or anyone can answer this question. Everyone has different beliefs and backgrounds, so everyone’s answers differ and vary. By sacrificing either wealth or spirit, it seems that both routes sacrifice happiness. Even the wealthier characters who have sacrificed spirit and seem to be happy, are truly just oblivious.

Tin Flute completely encompasses this "eternal human enigma" and the whole idea of redemption. We learn that redemption comes with a price, there is a cost associated with redemption. Redemption is also not a wholly sacrificial act, at least as far as the characters in Tin Flute are concerned. Azarius had the dilemma of finding a way to support his family. His solution was to swallow his pride and enlist. Of course, this form of pride swallowing isn't the same as the acts he should have taken in the years preceeding the current events of Tin Flute. He refused odd jobs, or jobs that he deemed below him, now he takes a job in which his skills aren't needed, but there is a comraderie and patriotism associated now. We see this with his son in Latour's bar who jabs at nothing with an air bayonet and belittles another young man who was a "civvy".

Every character in the novel has their own wants and needs, their disgusts and abhorrences. There is not a single act that I can clearly justify as wholly redemptive, martyr-esque, if you will. The eternal human enigma is not purely a black and white affair, there is a shade of grey. Let's look at Emmanuel. He loves Florentine with all that he has, but he has reservations of her feelings. He has second thoughts at the Banzai (celebratory seeing off of soldiers), he wishes to stay. However, a part of him wants to leave, not just for the patriotism, or the idea of "the right thing" or in hopes to "end wars", he also wants to leave Florentine behind because of his reservations of her, his doubts. The same can be said of Florentine, at the end, she is at odds to either speak to Jean or to run away, she choses to flee, but after some complicated, grudginly contested self-examination. And we know that, although she did chose to run from Jean, she also feels a slight pang of regret for turning her back on her love. Here, she choses "wealth", perhaps, over "spirit", if we were to discuss the EHE (eternal human enigma) of the scene. She is choosing a stable life over the notion of what-could-have-been with the boy she truly loved.

If The Tin Flute is a novel of Realism. Then the actions and outcomes of the characters should also reflect realism (lower-case). Shades of gray are adhered, only a non-realistic novel would try to make things so clear cut and absurdly simple. If I were to look at things in a substance-less, more dramatic, unrealistic way, I would chose spirit, as I am but a fool for life and the regret of not knowing, as with many characters in fiction, would be crushing to live with. Of course, things are not so simple in real life, there are many misc, seemingly eccentric, immensely intricate outcomes, motives and the like that just having a chose of "spirit" or "wealth" (and all the various other buzzwords) is not ambitious enough to be framed, and I believe that Tin Flute is a great example of the fact.

In the position I am in now I would definitely choose spirit over wealth, but in a poverty stricken state like Emmanuel I cannot say one way or the other what I would do. This question of the "human enigma" is central to The Tin Flute, but there is no definite answer proposed.

Every character takes on their challenges in a different way. Rose Anna's problem is she does not look at herself, she kills herself for those around her, but in her weakened state she cannot provide for all of them. Florentine becomes increasingly removed from the family. Azarius leaves the family to join the war. Everyone is looking for some sort of change. It is not clear whether these actions will end in failure or redemption, but there is a sense of meloncholic hope for the future.

I don’t think that the book has an answer to the “eternal human enigma” because the characters in the novel and real human beings sacrifice either wealth or spirit everyday, but it truly depends a persons character of which they will sacrifice. There is no real answer to which of these, wealth or spirit, is better to choose. Although the novel deals a lot with financial wealth, I think that the “eternal human enigma” creates a sense of personal wealth; a wealth gained by the experiences, people, and knowledge. Sometimes, especially in the novel, personal wealth can be burdensome. For Emmanuel I think the war created a change of heart where the actual burden of his past experiences is brought to light only after he experiences the tragedies of war. His spirit is burdened with the fact that he can’t completely help humanity just by fighting a war; fighting in the war doesn’t directly help Florentine or anyone else who is suffers from poverty.
I think today that many of us sacrifice spirit for wealth, because people believe that money will buy them happiness. I completely disagree; I don’t want to spend my life working my ass off to create the illusion that I am happy. I would rather sacrifice financial wealth, because I want to enjoy my life. I feel that Rose-Anna’s family had the right approach; even though they are poverty stricken, some of them would rather focus on their spirits and general happiness.

In my opinion the Tin Flute, while not answering the eternal human enigma conclusively, does focus more on spirit than wealth. When it does focus on wealth, the result is that of Jean, a character that no one particularly warms up to and the result is one of someone who is cold and distant. He focused on wealth, but that, in the end, got him nowhere. Or that of Emmanuel's family, who seem to be false and cold, albeit warmer than Jean, but that's not difficult to do. One thing of note with Jean is that when he is faced with situations that demand a response from his spirit side, time and time again he is faced with a personal dilemma and does not exactly know how to respond, as he has entrenched his personal being on the wealth side of the enigma.

A scene that I got much out of reading was on pg. 220, when Daniel was in the hospital. In describing his experiences with school, it reads: 'He had only been in class a few weeks, but the memory of it was persistent and gave him no rest.', 'She couldn't understand why he'd want so desperately to return to school.', and so on, with many such lines. I took much out of this scene for it is not Florentine, Azarius, Rose-Anne, Emmanuel or Jean, but rather Daniel, a much less focused upon, younger character. But it is in this distinction, a character we know not much about, that Garbrielle Roy shows that spirit, or rather the spirit to transcend/rise above/etc... is alive and well with the younger, less developed characters. Daniel's wanting to go to school tells of his spirit existing.

I'd love to say that I value spirit head and shoulders above wealth, but you unfortunately have to value money to some degree! I would call these characters admirable for being able to use their spirit to dominate the materialistic side, for I doubt I'd be able to do that for a long time.

I do not think Tin Flute provides a clear answer to the question of the eternal human enigma. As other people have said, this is because it is a complex problem without one concrete answer.
Some characters in the novel choose spirit over wealth. The first example is Azarius. Though he wants wealth and comfort for his family, he rejects opportunities to make money in order to stay true to himself and maintain his pride. Meanwhile his family sinks deeper into poverty and despair.
From the outside, it appears that Emmanuel choses spirit over wealth. He leaves his wealthy family and goes to war to try and do something good for the world. He is not concerned with monetary wealth and is more concerned with his morality.
But as we discussed in class, Emmanuel has this freedom because he never has to worry about money since he has it. He is able to reject the idea of wealth, because he has never experienced what poverty is.
Jean, as everyone has mentioned, is a clear example of someone who sees wealth as the ultimate achievement in life. He mocks everyone who goes to war for ethical reasons, and uses the war as a way to achieve his goal.
Florentine, someone who seemed much less shallow than Jean in the beginning, ultimately ends up succumbing to the power of money. This is not because is disgusted by the idea of poverty, it is because she has experienced it firsthand. She comes to terms with the fact that food and shelter are more important than true love.
I think that it's admirable to say one would chose spirit over wealth, but not always possible depending on the circumstances. In the end of the book, the character whose decisions I respected the most was Florentine. Wealth was not her ultimate goal, and happiness/love wasn't either. In the end she just wanted survival. She wanted was best for herself and her unborn child, and Emmanuel offered her a chance at good life. So she took it; After seeing what her family went through, who can blame her?

I feel that we live in a culture that views having money and posessions as being happy. It truely is an enigma that must be adressed. While this may have its' merit, it is a sad condition to live in. It has its' merit becuase most of what people stress out over and have relationship problems about is money related. Not being able to pay your bills is an easy way to get down in the dumps.

Azarius worries about this often and feels ashamed that his daughter must work to support a family that should be his responsibility. He alone, is a dreamer, content in his dreaming; this does nothing when there is a family to support. His content does not give content to his loved ones; money is needed. This is why the church condones a life of suffering, they know that life can be cruel and that to embrace the cruel dilemas and responsibilties of life is a path to God. Feeling not joy from life, but from the promise of an afterlife is what being religious is all about. This is one way that the suffering can be seen as only temporary.

Saying that possesions and money are meaningless and focusing only on spiritual content seems all well and good, but as members of society people cannot ignore the presence of the almighty dollar. The almighty dollar rules over the power of a spiritual ideal. Unless a person can be self sufficient and live off of the land, they must buy into the economic reality of life a civilized society, where money rules.

The whole notion of the "human enigma" plays a huge role in the novel from the start. It hangs like a cloud above every character's head and it's presence is gracefully woven throughout each chapter.

To me, wealth and spirit seem difficult to compare in The Tin Flute. Of course, as Julia Howe the uvm student, I would jump to the conclusion that spirit should prevail and is more important in the long run. And I do truly believe that spirit is far more real and rewarding than material wealth could ever be. But when you look at the impoverished situation that most of the characters are experiencing, it seems almost impossible to have a strong and continual sense of spirit without enough money to get you through the day comfortably. Take Rose-Anna for example: I believe that she genuinely places a lot of value on one's spirit, but her fincancial situation has become so desperate that the uneasy feeling of poverty occupies every crevice of her mind, leaving little room to be optimistic and loght-hearted enough to foster a strong spirit of any kind.

I think that it is apparent that the novel suggests that spirit is much more important in the end. Although the characters all experience their own unique ups and downs of life, each one manages to maintain a sense of spirit as an underlying human foundation...even if it may become dim at times. Yet the answer still is not clean-cut, as this is a realist novel and as we all know, nothing in life is simply black or white.

So which should be sacrificed: wealth or spirit? That question is much more complex than it appears on the surface. I feel as though spirit is a natural human trait and it always shines through during the most difficult of times (this is apparent when reading slave narratives, accounts from the holocaust, child abuse stories, etc.). I don't think that spirit even CAN be sacrificed. BUT, maintaining spirit doesn't necessarily lead to happiness. In today's world, you need a certain amount of money in order to live a comfortable lifestyle. Waking up and immediately thinking, "how am I going to feed my family today?" or "where are we going to live?" will surely serve to stomp on one's spirit. I suppose the ideal situation would be to have the two (wealth and spirit) co-exists symbiotically. As we all know though, that is easier said than done.

When I ask myself which I would sacrifice, it is easy to say wealth. But when putting myself into the context of any one of these characters, the answer becomes hazy and many different variables float around in my mind. I don't think that, until we have experienced an extreme situation, we can ever truly answer the question.

This is a very difficult question to answer. In both cases you would be losing something valuable. The real question is what is more important to survival. Yes a person can live without each one of these but perhaps they would not be fulfilled. On a personal level if you are prepared to sacrifice wealth than spirit would be the better choice, but in Rosa-Anna case she has several children to feed so she may be forced into choosing wealth. The question of “eternal human enigma” is constant throughout this novel and I do not think that I am able to fully answer it.
I feel that having to power to choose wealth or spirit is empowering but many of the people in this novel do not make the choice themselves, they are forced into one or the other. Jean may be the only one that does. He has chosen wealth over spirit and I feel has distance himself from the other characters in the novel as well as the readers. Rose-Anna was forced into choosing spirit because no wealth was in reach. I have been sitting here trying to figure out which I would choose and it seems almost impossible, I do not see myself being able to live without one.

In the Tin Flute, I believe the power of redemption exists through the sacrifice of either spirit or wealth depending on the character. For Azarius, he sacrifices his wealth in favor of spirit in order to secure the redemption of his life. Although Azarius gives up monthly service checks to Rose Anna and the family, he joins the military and war effort to regain control of his own life and escape the utter failure and poverty stricken world he knew in the slums of Montreal. In a way, Rose Anna also sacrifices wealth over spirit. Although she is desparately poverty stricken, her life and spirit are redeemed through the love felt for and from her family. Unfortunately for Rose Anna, she is unable to escape like Azarius, however she is a much stronger and honorable character for dedicating herself to her family and not giving up.

Contrastingly, Florentine sacrifices her spirit and gives up on her insatiable love for Jean in order to marry Emmanuel and receive the guarranteed wealth that accompanies her becoming his wife. Jean, it seems, also sacrifices spirit for wealth, dedicating his life to making money in order to rid his memory of being an orphan and poor.

While it seems Azarius, Rose Anna, Florentine and Jean are able to decide which aspect of life to sacrifice- wealth or spirit- Emmanuel struggles with this "eternal human enigma". As Roy suggests in the final scene, sacrificing spirit for wealth- in Emmanuel's eyes- proves most destructive to the human soul: "he seemed to be witnessing with his own eyes the supreme bankruptcy of humanity. Wealth had spoken the truth that night on the mountain" (376).

In my opinion, the eternal human enigma exists as a test to many who are forced to encounter it. I would like to believe I would sacrifice wealth in order to redeem my spirit, but until I am put in the situation, I would not know how to address it.

For this prompt, I realized that it took me quite a while of truly thinking it over to come up with my answer. Of course, everyone can look at it and say that the obvious answer is spirit...you are to stay true to yourself and your own beliefs above all else, but then there is the reality side of it that says being poverty-stricken is really not something to look at lightly.

In this book, I believe they truly illustrated the struggle between each side, because even though Azarius' family was clearly quite impoverished, it really never made mention of the family giving up something else to be there. I suppose you could argue that Azarius' pride kept him from earning a better living (by taking odd jobs here and there) but in reality, there weren't that many odd jobs up for grab, and it probably would only have helped them a bit. There wasn't really a conscious choice on the family's part, because they really weren't given any! Rose-Anna had really given up her faith for the most part, and didn't understand why her daughter, Yvonne, took it so seriously. I don't think that Rose-Anna had a lot of faith, because she'd probably had so many hardships brought onto her that she had given up her faith quite some time ago. I think she realized that the only person who could help her was herself, and if she were to step back and really assess her situation, she would probably break. You see this very well when Florentine goes off to marry Emmanuel and Rose-Anna sits to grieve a bit and cry to herself…she realizes shortly after that that if she lets herself feel sorry for herself then she will not survive. I’m not really sure if she was guided by either spirit or wealth as much as simply survival of her family.

I believe that Azarius chose spirit over wealth in that he was most concerned about his own happiness and freedom. I don't think wealth really mattered to him, or at least not as much as chasing his spirit.

In my case, I have seen many, many people choose wealth and the majority are extremely unhappy. I would truly hope that if faced with this dilemma, I would be able to look beyond the immediate future and realize that your spirit is the only thing that can control your happiness.

Instead of Roy providing us an answer to this "eternal human enigma", rather the book explores more of the actual problem. In this realistic portrayal of the struggle of human life, we see characters choosing wealth, because it is the biggest necessity. Is there really an opportunity to achieve so-seeked "redemption" while making important decisions in these harsh situations? In the end wealth decides all and dictates the lives of the characters. But Roy is showing to the reader that there is a huge struggle for survival in societies, and even 60 years post-publication we can still relate to these same dilemmas.

We have always been taught that spirit is far superior to wealth. Ideally, we'd all like to choose spirit over wealth. However you can't buy a coat, pay the rent, with your spirit alone. If you are part of a society, you need to be able to thrive, which is to say you need to be financially sound. Sacrificing your dreams is a necessary evil if its a choice of providing for your family or not. Roy brings us on this journey through the lives of others, and we see for ourselves that maintaining spirit is impossible when you're dealing in a world of necessity.

In this story it seems that most characters cannot achieve both wealth and spirit together. Azarius has spirit but is lacking the money to carry out his dreams, while Emmanuel has all the money he needs but cannot seem to find a lasting happiness. While they all share this struggle, Florentine really represents the eternal human enigma from beginning to end.

Florentine grows up surrounded by a poverty that she cannot escape. However bad her situation, she still manages to hold down a good job and provide for her family until she realizes a chance at a better future. Her first glimpse of happiness comes when seeing Jean for the first time at the restaurant. From this point forward, she fantasizes about him saving her from her misfortune, and we slowly see her become more distant from her family, less involved with her job, and falling into a depression that she was ironically trying to avoid. In the end, she becomes a shell of her former self by finally sacrificing her happiness to share Emmanuel’s wealth. She is completely disconnected from her family and has lost all hope that she will ever truly love.

In this way, Florentine represents how spirit should never be sacrificed for wealth. She may have a better future financially, but she will now live a loveless, lonely life. However, despite this strong example, it is not safe to say that this is the overall message in the book. In fact, on the contrary, I think that Emmanuel’s question cannot be answered.

In a lot of ways, in this story, sacrificing wealth means sacrificing spirit, such as with Rose-Anna. Here is a woman who came from a family that had more than enough to provide for themselves in the country, and she left all that to pursue a new life with her husband Azarius. Although Rose-Anna is undoubtedly a very strong character, it is also clear that she left a piece of herself behind when she moved to the city. In this case, Rose-Anna sacrificed wealth and spirit to try to build up her own family.

Conversely, Jean had a chance at wealth because of his spirit. While he played with Florentine and realized he could never return to the impoverished lifestyle he once had, he made the decision to look after himself and flee the situation to find wealth and happiness. While it was definitely a dick move, it allowed him to find his own sort of happiness.
There is no easy answer to the question that Emmanuel poses. Each character has to make their own decision, and it is not a black and white answer.

The eternal human enigma, the dilemma between wealth or spirit, comes to life in Roy's complex love triangle. Jean and Emmanuel's opposite treatments of Florentine illustrate the choice for Canadian men between a life of loneliness and wealth or poverty and spirit. Meanwhile, Florentine's interaction with the men seems to be Roy's metaphor for a Canadian woman's lack of choice, without enlistment and job promotions as an option. Roy seems to suggest that a person cannot achieve both wealth and spirit and that by sacrificing one, the other loses value. What good is wealth without anyone to share it with? What good is a family if you cannot give it what it needs?

Jean, drawn to Florentine instinctively by his familiarity with her poverty, is reluctant to pursue her since his main priority is to distance himself forever from that poverty. His childhood is poisoned by poverty that he overcomes despite the serious lack of sympathy for the demise of his parents, or the loneliness and insecurity that results from their demise. From this, Jean learns he can rely on no one, and resolves to merely take from the world. Understanding that the war trades the desperate lives of poor men for a little slice of security for their families, Jean selfishly chooses to exploit the situation further by working in a munitions factory and profiting from these poor mens' misery. By abandoning Florentine, he chooses to be alone with his wealth, never to know his child, and probably never able to acquire a meaningful relationship.

Born into wealth, Emmanuel has the luxury to chase spirit rather than wealth, and though he pities Florentine's poverty, he is unable to comprehend it, having never experienced it himself. In his attempt to remedy the social injustice he senses, he constantly questions his enlistment in the army in terms of how he can give back to the world. He is initially attracted to Florentine's spirit, the glow of love she obviously exhibits exclusively for Jean. Finally, since Emmanuel is able to sacrifice his wealth for Florentine's spirit, he perceives that his duty is to rescue her from poverty even if she does not truly love him.

Florentine first chooses Jean because she loves him. They are connected through false exteriors that do not express their genuine characters. Though united in their attraction to wealth, Florentine cannot earn it unless she is saved by marriage to a wealthy man. Until then, she must forfeit her paycheck to support her family in order to satisfy her morals. Florentine demonstrates that the road toward spirit does not always lead to happiness, as Jean proves when he abandons her to raise a child alone in poverty. Likewise the road toward wealth can only offer a false happiness as her marriage to Emmanuel proves, where she must sacrifice love and excitement for security for herself and her child.

In my opinion this book cannot answer the question of "eternial human enigma". That is why it is such a puzzel. Whatever this book has to offer for an answer someone will disagree with it. I think that it is a very personal question and each character in the book answers it according to who they are and how they chose to live their life, as would anyone outside of the book.

Roy shows how poverty shapes the lives of the characters and how their choices are effected by their actions. Florentine and Jean show that wealth does not always lead to happiness, but the choices they made were made for their survival and what is best in the long run.

I do not believe that The Tin Flute offers an answer to the “eternal human enigma.” I do not believe that there is anything in existence that can answer this problem. Each character is attempting to find their redemption through their actions. Azarius is going to war in order to provide for his family, but he is also using it as a mean of escape. Rosa Anna is giving everything she has for her family, but she is not trying to change anything either. In the end you do not feel that any of the characters have made strides toward solving the “eternal human enigma.”

I do not believe that I could say what I would do in this same situation. It is easy to sit back and say that I would choose spirit over money, but you can never say that for certain unless you are put in that position. I hope to never have to face this situation in my life. As long as I can remain removed from it I will never know the answer to the “eternal human enigma.”

I don't think that this novel answers the question of what is the eternal human enigma, it only makes the reader question it even more. Throughout the novel, poverty is one of the most prominant factors in the main characters' lives. I was confused about what exactly Roy means by the "eternal human enigma" at first but as a read on and we discussed in class it became more apparent to me that this idea of eternal human enigma is different in everyone one of us. Some choose spirit while others chose wealth to better their lives and it varies between each person. People have been questioning the meaning of life and our existence since man has been on this planet and we still haven't quite figured it out yet.
In this story wealth is a major issue since poverty is so prevalent throughout Montreal and some people do not have a choice whether to sacrifice either of the two. Emmanuel does. He has wealth and anyone can focus on the spiritual aspect of their life. Florentine does not have any wealth at all. It is sad to think that wealth can change someones' life for the better but in the case of the Lacasse family, it can. When one does not have enough money to buy basic needs and provide for their own family, money can buy happiness. In the case of spirit, it is hard to have a good spirit when your family is suffering and you are working as hard as possible. Not all is created equal in this world and many people suffer because of it. I believe that you cannot answer the question of the "eternal human enigma" because it is a mystery in itself. The word enigma is a puzzling or inexipicable situation and thats exactly what the Lacasse family is in. Roy raises this question because in the end of the story Florentine has money from Emmanuel and spirit because things are starting to work out for her and there is now a possible outlook for her future but something is still missing. She is still not completely happy with her life, but she ignores that and insists to herself that everything is going to be alright. By ending the novel this way, Roy points out the eternal human enigma: the question of what makes us complete and happy. I feel that she does not try to answer the question at all but just make the reader think even more into this theme and question everything more. By leaving the novel almost incomplete she creates an enigma that puzzles us and leaves us to decide for ourselves and not find an answer from her.

I feel as though the Tin Flute "sets the table" for the reader about the question of the "eternal human enigma" but doesn't give any answers. The novel makes the reader a spectator to the lives of people who are constantly battling between the choice of wealth or spirit. It is difficult to say whether I would choose wealth or spirit if I were in the same situation as Emanuel. On one hand, I have always felt that I would be nothing without my spirit and pride. I have always felt that if I ever lost my spirit then there would really be nothing to live for. It is very difficult to give up pride for anything, even if it is going to make life a lot less stressful or painful. However, on the opposite side of the same coin, I have never found myself in a situation quite like the characters in The Tin Flue. I do have a family, but I do not have children and a wife of my own who rely on me for survival. At this point in my life, I think I would definitely choose spirit over wealth nine times out of ten. That being said, in the future when I have a family of my own to provide for, I think I would very easily be able to swallow my pride in order to protect my family. When you become a husband and father you take on the responsibility of providing for family at any cost. Therefore, in this situation, I think I would definitely be able to swallow my pride and spirit to gain wealth in order to make the lives of my loved ones more enjoyable.

The "eternal human enigma" is something that I think Roy attempts to deal with, and she does it in an interesting way. The enigma itself, as Roy writes, is the rift between wealth and spirit. This is something that plagues all of the characters in the novel, whether they should strive for wealth and sacrifice themselves or sacrifice wealth and stay true to who they are. Given the definition of the word "enigma" one can assume that dealing with an "eternal" one will not be easy, however, Roy seems to have found a way to circumvent answering her own questions, "Which of the two, wealth or spirit, should sacrifice itself? Which of the two possessed the true power of redemption?" directly.

The characters of Emmanuel and Jean serve the writer in that they allow her to explore both sides of the perpetual puzzle. Jean consistently finds himself falling on the side of wealth, often alienating himself from others in his pursuit of that aspect of his life. On the other hand, Emmanuel does not concern himself with wealth and the pursuit thereof, much to the chagrin of his family. I think that by putting the two characters in the same novel, but on opposite ends of the enigmatic perspective, Roy succeeds in not so much answering the question herself, but leaving it up to the reader's interpretation.

As for my opinion, if I had to choose, I would like to say that I lean more towards Emmanuel's end of the spectrum. I've always felt that I adhere to Ben & Jerry's philosophy, "If it's not fun, why do it?" However, there is a part of me that knows that all fun and no work makes Sean not get a degree/job. And I think that's where the idea of this being an "eternal enigma" comes in. It's not something that one can puzzle through and get a solution. In life there will be times when life must be sacrificed for work and (fortunately) when work must be sacrificed for life.

I agree with several of my classmates, in that The Tin Flute is largely based on this idea of which should be most important, wealth or the spirit. Many of the characters, Azarius, Jean, and Florentine arguebly, ultimately find that for themselves, wealth is the most important thing. Emmanuel,on the other hand, sees spirit as the most important thing and states this as he observes everyone going off to war. What i think is best about the end of this story is that i don't think Roy really pushed either answer onto the reader and instead leaves it wide open for which ever we as the reader find to be the answer, particular to our own life experience. I thin that for me, there is no black and white answer but instead that one has to find the happy medium, the good balance between the two in order to attain some type of happiness. As Sean said, " in life there will be times when life must be sacrificed for work and (fortunately) when work must be sacrificed for life." This is the same way i feel, that you have to work to succed in both and stay who you are while supporting yourself and not compromising your principles. But, on the same token. it all matters as to where you came from and what your specific philospohy is. If i was from where Florentine came from, i would imagine that i would be far more willing to compromise my beliefs/spirit for money to support my large and poor family. So, it truly is the human enigma as it is different for each and every one of us.

The essence of the ‘eternal human enigma’ suggests that there is no answer to this question which has seemingly plagued all man for as long as we can remember. In The Tin Flute, Gabrielle Roy suggests that the answer to the ‘eternal human enigma’ varies from person to person with no formulaic answer as to whether the spirit or wealth of a person should be sacrificed in favor of the other but implies that it is their situation which determines what is more important. Through the chapters which focus specifically on each of the more major characters we are able to infer whether their wealth or spirit is more important and why. Through the characters of Jean, Florentine and Eugene, Roy shows that the importance of wealth trumps that of the spirit where as the character of Emmanuel shows the reader that their spirit is more important than anything else.
The essence of the ‘eternal human enigma’ suggests that there is no answer to this question which has seemingly plagued all man for as long as we can remember. In The Tin Flute, Gabrielle Roy suggests that the answer to the ‘eternal human enigma’ varies from person to person with no formulaic answer as to whether the spirit or wealth of a person should be sacrificed in favor of the other but implies that it is their situation which determines what is more important. Through the chapters which focus specifically on each of the more major characters we are able to infer whether their wealth or spirit is more important and why. Through the characters of Jean, Florentine and Eugene, Roy shows that the importance of wealth trumps that of the spirit where as the character of Emmanuel shows the reader that their spirit is more important than anything else.

The Tin Flute explores the eternal human enigma with each of these characters, and while each are tempted in several different ways, and each for their own reasons, they all must make decisions based on this enigma no matter what situation they are in. It is especially unique to examine the question of the eternal human enigma in the time of war, especially from the eyes of Emmanuel, who is a soldier, because generally in this time the spirit takes on a greater importance when one is often close to death or has been close to death, and has seen and experienced horrific things, with human beings at their worst point in existence, which is war.

While this situation appears as though it would wholeheartedly answer the eternal human enigma, and without hesitation make spirit appear as the choice and wealth as the sacrifice, there remains lingering questions. By sacrificing wealth or a pursuit of wealth, Emmanuel does not necessarily get when his spirit desires most. By sacrificing spirit his may get what he desires, but not in the way that he desires. I would argue that if anything, the Tin Flute does not offer an answer to the eternal human enigma, but rather reinforces how complicated it really is.

The Tin Flute does not answer the question of the eternal human enigma directly, instead it provides examples of individuals (Florentine, Emmanuel, Jean, Azarius, and Rose-Anna) who to a certain extent are given the option of choosing between wealth or spirit. As much as Florentine is tired of living a life of poverty by marrying Emmanuel she is sacrificing the feelings she has for Jean. Obviously for Florentine her happiness is not what is most important to her, maybe if her financial situation was similar to Emmanuel's she would have made a different decision. Either way the novel ends with none of the characters truly attaining happiness, but it does end with the characters being financially better off. I think the message Roy is trying to convey to the reader is that there really is no right or wrong answer to what the eternal human enigma is because everyone's answer will be different depending on their situation because after all feeling deprived of money or happiness entirely can't be good for anyone. I also think that a person's answer will depend a lot on at what point there are at in their lives.

If given the choice between happiness and wealth I would choose happiness, but I can also understand where Rose-Anna is coming from when she chooses money over happiness because I think there comes a time when if you are that destitute that you can't guarantee you will be able to provide for your family, especially young children that it would be next to impossible to find happiness. I agree with what Julia H said about having wealth and spirit exist symbiotically.