The first time that I read “Soir Bleu” by Robert Olen Butler, I had a hard time understanding the plot of the story. Upon a second read through, I realized that the emotional depth of the story far outweighed the slightly strange plot. When I first read the piece, I had been bored until Pierrot began interacting more with the main character. Pierrot was made to be such an anomaly in a pretty normal social setting. As a reader I found myself imagining how Pierrot would stick out and the haunting image the painting provides. 
When the relationship between Solange and Vachon was woven into the story, I couldn’t figure out whether or not Solange was simply a way to leverage business or if they were in a relationship. As time went on the clarity of their relationship was still shaky at best. It was evident that Vachon considered Solange his in every way possible, going as far as to say that she no longer existed except by his hand (referencing his skill at painting her I believe).
In this story it is clear to me that Leclare’s character in this story serves only the purpose of being a component of the confrontation or really the murder of Solange. Not only does not really contribute to any conversation nor is his character revealed at all, but the story actually actively avoids mentioning what he and Solange were discussing although it was heavily implied. The only time that Leclare really speaks, besides dismissing himself, is him blaming Solange for their bedroom activities after being caught. His character is the very definition of a flat character.
The author introduced a character that confused me on how it would all tie together. However with the introduction of Vochan’s father we learned that his love for theater was a result of his fathers similar intensity. It was stated that Vochan did not want to remember things about his father as it was quite a traumatizing memory it seems. However Vochan’s frankly strange reaction to seeing Solange and Leclare and his following moment of violence were hard to process. As the reader I was expecting Vochan to have a moment of rage but instead he just acted without really having a burst of emotions, which is what I thought would happen in a crime of passion like this. The transformation of Pierrot into Vochan was well executed by describing the father’s previous features, making it easy for the reader to understand the “magical” transformation. Without the description of the father ahead of time I believe that I would not have realized that Pierrot was actually Vochans father.