Plus-que-parfait and confusion

Bonjour tous!!!

I'm reading a French book for intermediate level readers. I'm confused with the use of plus-que-parfait in the text.
The text goes like this.

La soirée avait mal commencé. Robin avait cherché sa cravate, la noire, partout. Il en avait besoin pour aller travailler. Évidemment, elle n'était ni dans l'armoire, ni sur le dossier de la chaise, ni n'importe où par terre près du futon.
- T'as pas vu ma cravate? avait-il lancé à Amélie qui faisait la vaisselle dans la kitchenette.
Elle avait haussé les épaules, de jolies épaules bronzées mises en valeur son débardeur rose.
- Je t'ai dit cent fois de ranger tes affaires, je ne suis pas ta mére! avait-elle répondu en continuant à gratter la poêle.

In the phrase "avait-il lancé à Amélie qui faisait la vaisselle dans la kitchenette", why do we use the plus-que-parfait? Why not use passé composé?
Would it be wrong to use "a-t-il lancé à Amélie qui faisait la vaisselle dans la kitchenette"?

I think that in narration we use passé composé, don't we?

Similarly, why has the writer used "elle avait haussé les épaules, de..." and not "elle a haussé les épaules, de..."?
Similar confusion for the third underlined phrase.

Thanks in advance for helping me out. I'm stuck on the very first page...

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on February 13, 2014 at 9:03pm

I think if you make the English translation "she had said to Amelie.. " it also makes sense in English.

It is a little different from ""she said to Amelie.. " but both are permissable .

The description begins with a pluperfect also "La soirée avait mal commencé"

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Permalink Reply by Robert on February 14, 2014 at 5:57pm

My lamentable habit to hark back to English when trying to understand French! But , for what it's worth:
In English, narrative always makes sense using "had +past participle":

The evening had begun poorly.

That's a good way to indicate that the story was unfolding in the past.
(If you say 'The evening has begun poorly,' there's nothing wrong about it, except you are looking at things unfolding in the presence.)

For that reason, I will 'conjecture' that in French, the plus-que-parfait is also the preferred tense for narrative: the 1st sentence below is preferable to the 2nd:

La soirée avait mal commencé.
La soirée a mal commencé.

Similarly with the other instances of plus-que-parfait in your story above.

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Permalink Reply by Vedas on February 14, 2014 at 6:38pm

With the plus que parfait you keep a distance with the events it can be a time distance or a way to express that you are no more concerned with the actions or that you are detached.

But most of the time the pluperfect and plus-que-parfait are quite similar in their use.

As far as narration is concerned English is more logical or French more complex, points of view and style can cause the choice of the tense.The time of narration is often the present in contemporary litterature (le présent de narration) versus the preterite in English.

food for thought: the first sentence of the novel du côté de chez Swann (Marcel Proust)