The work of Gabrielle Roy cannot be dissociated from the story of her life. Many have already tried to establish a definite connection between these two aspects of her life. Among the themes that are ever present in her texts and of particular interest to readers is her preoccupation with the past. The text of Mircea Eliade is important to the theoretical framework of the following thesis. His postulating that human beings constantly repeat their past to find meaning to their lives is capital to my analysis of Gabrielle Roy's texts. Indeed, her preoccupation with the past stems from a desire on her part to understand and live with her present. This thesis analyses how through returning constantly to her past, Gabrielle Roy, either directly or through her characters, engages in a ritual that gives to her life a « raison d’être ». The first chapter focuses on a return in time and the second chapter is devoted to studying a return in space, both of which belong to the past.