Character Analysis
Amédée is one of those characters, like Marie, you just know will kick the bucket before the end of the novel.
Why?
He's just too darn happy. First he's enthusiastic about his new marriage, encouraging Emil to get married as soon as possible, and then he's bubbling about his baby boy. But then—fate comes to get him, too. While working in the fields, not long after the birth of his child, Amédée collapses and dies from a case of untreated appendicitis.
We might find ourselves wondering what an imperviously cheerful fellow like Amédée is doing with a comparatively dark and brooding character like Emil. Well, what is clear is that Emil likes Amédée because he's different—he's French and Catholic, and Emil definitely doesn't get along well with the other Swedish boys. Amédée and his friends represent the ideal community, "spirited and jolly," optimistic and firmly rooted in the church, and in this way, Emil's friendship with Amédée makes his own outsider status all the more obvious.