The narrator’s family attempts to re-establish its racial supremacy by strictly following the conventions of European colonial household where for instance the narrator recalls:“We were white children, we were ashamed, we sold our furniture, but we weren’t hungry, we had a houseboy and we ate. The family sinks into poverty because of the death of the father and poor investment in an unproductive parcel of land by the narrator’s mother resulting in their alienation from other Europeans. To ensure they preserve their supremacy as members of European society, the narrator’s mother attempts to form associations with the people from the European community. The narrator and her family relate more to the experiences of the poor locals which threatens their enjoyment of the privileges that come with being European.
Although the French were the colonizers in “The Lover”, poverty in the narrator’s family makes them be more racially and economically proximate to the peasant locals than to the fellow Europeans. Power dynamics in “The Love” can be explored in the context of the social and economic status that the narrator’s family occupies as members of the colonizer’s race.
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