Towards the end of the reading, Michel likens himself to a palimpsest. In what way or ways do you think the palimpsest is a productive metaphor for Michel's relationship to and understanding of himself? Remember to support your analysis with direct quotes and specific examples from the text.

First of all, we need to define the word "palimpsest." A palimpsest is a page from a manuscript or book from which the original text has been washed or scraped so that it can be re-used. This was a common practice in ancient cultures, where paper was scarce and expensive.
Michel could be seen as a palimpsest in that his true sexuality has been obscured beneath the inauthentic identity imposed upon him by society. In metaphorical terms, society has written over Michel's authentic self with its own values. As such, there are two Michels: the respectable, outwardly heterosexual man married to Marceline; and the real Michel, the original text beneath the accretions, a gay man forced to suppress his sexuality.
When Michel returns home to France, he finds that the garden fulfills the role previously held by his wife, in that it restores his broken health. In the garden, he experiences something of an epiphany, reconnecting with his true self as he luxuriates in the verdant radiance of the Edenic garden:

My reawakened senses now remembered a whole ancient history of their own — recomposed for themselves a vanished past. They were alive! Alive! They had never ceased to live; they discovered that even during those early studious years they had been living their own latent, cunning life.

The "ancient history" of Michel's sexuality, though long subdued by society and its mores, had never really died. It had lived on since childhood, despite society's attempts to erase this human palimpsest's original text and identity.