Duras "Moderato Cantabile"

This novel begins with an opening of a piano lesson. Usually music is considered to be peaceful, especially the harmony coming from a piano, but in this case it was quite the opposite. There was a mixture of confusion along with anger and carelessness that led way to a frightening scene. The boy, the teacher, and the mother are in the room for the boy's lesson and it is not going well. The teacher, Mademoiselle Giraud, comes off as being very strict and doesn't have patience. She doesn't tolerate mistakes or stupidity, which the boy is presenting on purpose. She continues to order him to play the piano certain ways and asks what "moderato cantabile" means, which the boy should easily know. Instead of answering and doing what she says he continues to act as if he is dumbfounded because he doesn't have any interest in the music, and rather sit there and stare out at boats in the ocean. The teacher knows he is only pretending to not know the material and gets frustrated because she is aware of his talents, but he isn't cooperating. The mother, Anne Desbaresdes, continues to tell her son to participate, but she doesn't scold him. Instead, she has the basic mother instinct to talk genuine to him and basically baby him. The mother and son have a very close bond that is obvious, and clearly the boy wasn't raised to have respect the way he should. We learn that Anne comes from money because she is married to a wealthy man, so the son is basically spoiled and doesn't have manners. Anne just laughs every time he messes up the keys or ignores the teacher, as if it is a joke and not serious. As this scene goes on another scene is happening outside the window on the streets, where a woman was just murdered in a cafe. The woman screams and then everyone crowds near the door and sirens follow indicating that the police are about to be there. So, the novel opens with two scenes that are based upon troubles and have a sad tone, instead of a happy one, which is unusual for a beginning.
I think the scream was from a random woman who was murdered by her husband in a local cafe because it gave sense to help Anne figure out her own self, and come to reality. Anne and her son had a daily routine where they would go for walks and then Fridays was the piano lesson. It seemed like their lives were actually quite boring and neither one of them were very happy, so they had fun together doing simple things. Anne had all this money so her family was considered to be wealthy, meaning that they were "required" to perform the same roles in society as the other upper class residents. However, money clearly didn't buy them happiness like it did for others. So, when the scream interrupted the music lesson, Anne right away became intrigued with the whole scenario and "had" to learn more of what happened and why. She needed to know every detail and she learned parts of the story from a man she drank wine with in the same cafe. This man, Chauvin, was there at the murder scene, so he walked Anne through the steps. In a way, by learning of the murdered woman and the husbands' affair, Anne and Chauvin engaged in their own new love affair. Anne did things she never normally did, like drink a lot of wine and sit at the cafe for hours talking. She finally did something she wanted to do for once, and the heartbreaking story of the murder and the love that the woman felt for her husband, was the missing puzzle piece to help bring Anne's own life and love interest into better perspective. A tragic moment led to an enchanting moment.