The Boucherie By Stephanie Soileau Summary

“The Boucherie” reveals Cajun culture through values, ethics, and their traditions. Stephanie Soileau explores Cajun tradition of how these magical get-togethers show their devotion to good neighboring and their communal country rituals. Cajuns are mostly known for being dauntless as they are very proud over their heritage and of the history they have made for their kind in southern Louisiana. By definition, a boucherie is where several families gather around to slaughter an animal to distribute the share of meat equally, and within this story, a cow that connects many different people. Stephanie Soileau illuminates a message of unity that is formed through Cajun culture by utilizing plot throughout her story.
Through conflict, the protagonist

or the neighborhood is revealed to the reader by their Cajun traditions and values. The comparison to food such as gumbo is brought into the story a lot in so far as that is it a metaphor of the people, that the gumbo itself is a mix of ingredients clashed together and that each of these ingredients that blend with one another represent the community as a whole just like gumbo. The neighborhood meeting the Sudanese and the slow acceptance of them throughout the story helps convey the warmth of the Cajuns. “By the end of the second year, the neighborhood had accepted the Sudanese in that they had lost interest in the family altogether (16).” The scene where Fatima invited Alvin and Della for tea, Della tells Fatima about her experience as a child throughout the hinted time period of the Great Depression, they had nothing to eat and with this, significance is brought since getting together and being part of the community is the goal.
The stolen property or the cow as exposition is a fine example of how to reveal that the Cajuns believed in something higher than the law. Relevant to the past, Cajuns were free to hunt for meat or own farms to supply themselves with food, but now they have to buy it at their local market stocked with high meat prices. The cow represents opportunity, Slug talked to Fatima and said “…one cow is a lot of meat (22)”. This opportunity that they gained created a meeting between the neighbors and created conflict due to their different lifestyles. Slug has been avoided by the neighborhood for a long time and is soon back with them as the story progresses and invites the Sudanese into their lives. The Cajuns are letting go of their old tradition in which it relates to Slug’s face being eaten away by bacteria, they are both rotting away.

It began with Slug’s wife, due to the fear of living healthy, they stopped going to the parties that the neighborhood has thrown and that signifies that the old Cajun culture did not want to join the modern version of their kind.”… they stopped visiting their neighbors terrified of the gumbos and etouffees that threatened their blood at every house (13).” Slug’s wife soon dies off malnourishment, providing the reader with enough information to realize that the Cajun culture is dying, but they still did not want to join the new version. In the end of the story, each of the neighbors wondered why they did not help Slug through his melanoma, not only did they realize he is just a normal guy, but that their sense of community that was diminishing was now returning. Slug joins in at the finale of the boucherie to help with the foreigners who were similar to him, outcasts. The Sudanese are a big part in the story as they begin with a large conflict on the boucherie that the neighbors want to throw, insofar as Fatima does not know of the Cajun tradition

and calling the cops about a lost item would be the proper procedure. Khalid is more of a minor conflict since he is tied with Fatima’s confusion on the cow, however the small events in which the “US guys” appear cause trouble for the Sudanese to adapt to this neighborhood. The strength of a new found trust is trusted when Fatima loosens up and says that Khalid must be the one to cut the cow, of course the people were willing but Khalid pointed out that she was joking, this shows how Fatima lowers her guard and slowly begins to accept their culture. Khalid on the other hand, shows that he still needs a bit more convincing as his actions of taking a weapon while escorting, breaking into a house, and kicking into a tree are all purposely set up by Soileau to create a climax within the story. For one, he kicked the tree due to the frustration created by the “US guys” who appear as the antagonist which prevented him from trusting the neighbors. The weapon in hand would be the baseball bat that was given to him by his mother for his own protection, then is the breaking of the house where he tries to focus the blame on those “US guys” who were mean to his family at the start of the story. Khalid’s actions have shown that at the end of the story, he can truly tell whether he wants to be part of the Cajuns or the guys influenced by the US influence on terrorism. “Slug laid his hand over the boy’s….tightly to stop his quaking.” This quote is the denouement or the untying of the knot where both conflicts are solved, as Khalid finally cuts the cow to allow the symbolic blood flowing and the realization that Slug is a normal guy and should not have been avoided before Fatima treated him. Soileau allows for insight on defiant behavior by either having the characters convoy their feelings through the speaking of French or by naturally voicing their opinion on the matter.
The defiance of authority is really brought out to their joie de vivre or their attitude towards life.

The Cajuns used to be free to roam, do as they please and suddenly their way of life is disturbed by rules created by government. Recently there has been an ex-convict that could be Louisiana’s new congressman where not only has he been getting a huge number of supporters based on that every human is not perfect, but also he told the audience that he would like their vote, but he would rather have their respect (Elliott, Debbie) “We like our scoundrels” is well within Cajun beliefs insofar as the story’s paying for meat was rather inferior ,however getting the meat for free without having to pay fat cat business owners is quite a bonus, especially if it’s from their cow. Slug’s comment towards doctors, “Ca connaisse pas rien, those fool doctors (20)”, show his rebelliousness towards government, especially since doctors are leading authority figures of government itself. “Us coonasses been stealing cows since the dawn of time.” The grandmother lied to her grandson about the cow and came back to her group with a great big laugh. Not only have they been doing this for a long time, but they clearly enjoy sticking one to the authorities for taking their lifestyle away. Added through pride, was Khalid’s hate for the guys who drive by his house to keep telling him to go home, which he vented out his hatred out on an old couple’s house(32) in which they would immediately assume

it was done by those drunk people who made fun of Khalid and his family. He was not punished as the one who found him was Slug, both were at first outcasts so they got along and grew to accept the community, and in return the community would do the same. Even the Sudanese, an outcast at first, later changes Slug’s bandages to make him seem like a regular person can be seen as a good person who also shares the common defiancy which the Cajuns embrace when they obtain opportunity. Fatima helps Slug and he helps her family in return, and since they are both conflicts themselves, they later begin to solve themselves as a community rather than by being told what to do.
Cajun people can definitely be defined in many ways shown throughout “The Boucherie.” Soileau conveys both the Cajun’s dubious sense of warmth as a community and defiance among authorities through a cow which becomes an opportunity for manduction. This plethora of both conflict and stages of plot within the story bring together the most random group of people into this wholeness of Cajun culture and tradition in which everyone in the neighborhood is a part of something equal.