Rémi

Rémi’s separation from the home where he has been raised marks the beginning of his life on the road. A foundling brought up by Barberin and Mme Barberin, he is handed over to Vitalis, an old itinerant musician, and sets out against his will. The scene makes the rupture tangible: as the house recedes behind him, Rémi understands that the familiar life he leaves may be gone for good.

Identity and Background

Rémi is the central child protagonist of Hector Malot’s Sans famille, a work of fiction for young readers. Found as a child, he is raised by Barberin and Mme Barberin. Their home is the setting of his early life, but it does not secure his place there: they eventually entrust him to Vitalis, whose traveling life takes Rémi away from the only home he has known.

The Departure from the Barberins

When Vitalis discovers that Rémi’s belongings amount only to rags, he challenges Barberin’s account that the child has nothing else. He says he has no time to dispute the matter and insists that they leave. Asked for the child’s name, Barberin answers that it is Rémi; Vitalis then tells him to take his bundle and walk ahead.

Rémi reaches toward Vitalis and then Barberin, but both turn their heads away. Vitalis takes him by the wrist, and Rémi has no choice but to walk. Crossing the threshold feels to him like leaving part of his own skin behind. The image conveys the departure as a bodily wound, not simply a change of address.

Vitalis calls him his child and draws him onward by the arm. He does not hurry; Rémi believes that he even sets his pace to match the boy’s. This small accommodation contrasts with the force of the separation: Vitalis is taking Rémi away, but on the road he gives the grieving child time to keep up.

The Vanishing Home and the Road Ahead

The path climbs the mountain in bends. At each turn Rémi sees Mme Barberin’s house growing smaller, and he knows the route well enough to anticipate the final view: after the last bend, the house will appear once more; a few steps farther, on the plateau, it will disappear. Behind him lies the home where he has been happy; ahead is the unknown. He fears that he will never see the house again.

This forced departure opens onto the broader course of Rémi’s story. Vitalis later dies, leaving Rémi alone, and the boy sets out to find his true family, a search that takes him as far as England. The contrast between the diminishing house behind him and the unknown ahead thus gives the opening separation its lasting significance: it is both the loss of a childhood home and the beginning of his wandering.