In the short story “Magpies” by Thomas King, a unique narrator is used to recount the story of the character Granny’s death and the subsequent conflict involving her burial between Ambrose and Wilma. In his story, King intertwines written and oral literature, and creates an oral voice through a narrator. There are many techniques that King uses to achieve this effect. King’s writing style which is used in “Magpies” is best described by King himself in his essay “Godzilla vs. Post-Colonialism”. He describes this style of narration as “interfusional” which is a “metamorphosis- (from) written to oral, reader to speaker” (Godzilla vs Post-Colonialism 14). Through using the role of a storyteller, King uses the “interfusional” style of writing. The …show more content…
Many words are repeated throughout the story, often suggesting they are significant to the narration. Connecting this repetition to the idea of an oral narrator, these moments of repetitions become moments of teaching. One of the words that King repeats throughout the story is “See-po-aah-loo”, which is important since it is a word in Granny’s language translating to a garbage hole (Magpies 23). The narrator teaches the audience the meaning of the word explaining that it represented, “Everything you don’t want people to see. You put them there” (Magpies 23). This particular word has two important ideas and purposes in the narration. One purpose of the repetition is to connect the reader to the story’s subject’s cultures and community. By using a word in Granny’s language, King creates a greater intimacy between the reader and the narrator. The narrator teaches the word to their audience, imitating a real-life storyteller teaching their audience about his culture and identity through language. The second purpose is to highlight the main irony in the story and the conflict between Ambrose and Wilma. After Granny’s death, the two characters had differing ideas of what to do with her body, with Wilma wanting a Catholic burial. Granny viewed the concept of burial as being put into a garbage hole, the “See-po-aah-loo” (King, “Magpies” 24). After her burial, Ambrose …show more content…
The narration mimics human speech through breaking grammar rules and using informal language. This is exemplified through the passage where Granny is in the hospital and the narrator comments on the medical system saying, “Those doctors tell Granny, ummmm, ummmm, ummmm. Maybe you better stay here. One day. Four days. Maybe we see something” (King, Magpies 23). The narrator pokes fun at a system which frustrates him and a somewhat sarcastic and witty voice is created in the passage. The uncomplicated nature of the narrator’s speech strengthens the voice of a storyteller and makes the narrator more relatable and realistic. The onomatopoeia of the word “ummmm” adds sound to the narration and brings his speech to life. These techniques pull the reader to not only read, but also to listen to the story. The narrator is given a personality through this and is given the opportunity to express personal opinion and engage with the reader, much like a real
Character voice is used in Craig Silvey’s novel Jasper Jones and James Roy’s series of short stories Town as a way of engaging the audience and making it an inclusive text for the reader. In both texts the author’s use of character voice paints a picture of the nature and feelings of the characters, such as; Lee’s infatuation with Briony in Town, Eliza’s ambitiousness and constant need for freedom in Jasper Jones. The character voice used for all the characters represents the personality, behaviors and traits of the individuals. It also allows the audience to see themselves as a member of the community that Town focuses on and a citizen of Corrigan, becauses of the author’s usage of specific, inclusive and descriptive language.
In the first chapter of the novel, the author gives the narrator’s story an informal, conversational tone by using “I” frequently, short, simple sentences, basic vocabulary and conversational phrases like “you know what I mean.” (pg. 8) The narrator seems like a nice old man: happy, brave, and compassionate. The narrator is an older, grown man working in an “office” and walking in a small town neighborhood. (pg. 8). He seems generally happy and is “walking along whistling” (pg. 8) as he walks. He does not get flustered easily because he doesn’t run away when a pack of dogs is coming at time but just “moves over the the edge of the sidewalk” (pg. 9) to let them pass. He was not too sentimental at first as he was worried about the “sanitation department [having to] pick up a dead dog” (pg. 9) instead of worrying about the poor animal and his suffering. However, when the dog reminds him of a time “when an old hound like that had given his life so that [he] might live” (pg. 10), the narrator gets emotional. His “fighting blood was boiling” (pg. 11) and he decides to intervene. It is clear that he is brave because he steps into the middle of a dog fight to save the old hound dog (pg. 11). Next, the narrator is kind and compassionate toward the dog when he “almost cried” (pg. 12) at the state of the old dog, and then baths and feeds him (pg.
“The effect of the narrator's telling of this story upon the reader, as well as of the mariner's telling of his tale upon the wedding-guest, make narration itself fundamental (as it is in Frankenstein)” (Dr. Michael Rossington) Therefore, this essay will talk about the different narrators found in both literary works and its narrative structure.
[During the telling of the story there were no meaningful gestures, just pauses when the storyteller couldn't remember certain details, or when she wanted to take more sips of her macchiato. The storyteller did not relate the story with intonation or pitch changes, nor did her rate change. It was more like the stating of facts she knew.]
In the story, “The Killing Game”, Joy Williams, uses several diffenent types of writing skills to presuade the reader to see her views.
By varying her perspectives, Carson is able to change the tones of the short stories. By using her childhood self as a narrator, she purveys a since of innocence. Meanwhile by using an unnamed wise sounding narrator in other stories, she creates a sense of tenseness and urgency. Thus, she experimentally demonstrates that the narrator can heavily determine what the reader thinks of the piece, and therefore can very precisely be used as a creative device to convey meaning.
“On Writing – A Memoir of the Craft” is not written in the traditional textbook format. The structure of this book works as an educational tool is because it offers a personal look at how writing has affected one successful novelist's life. Each section of the book contains something important about the craft of writing. The book also includes a great deal of about the personal impact writing has had on Stephen King's life.
The writer has used a combination of narrative and descriptive styles of writing. He has used the descriptive style to give a step by step illustration on what a man should do, how he should behave and lastly what he should say from the beginning to the end of the story (Meyer 45). The narrative style comes into play as he adds in his characters, the conflicts they will face or words they will use and the settings and or challenges they will encounter throughout the short story. This
Short stories are temporary portals to another world; there is a plethora of knowledge to learn from the scenario, and lies on top of that knowledge are simple morals. Langston Hughes writes in “Thank You Ma’m” the timeline of a single night in a slum neighborhood of an anonymous city. This “timeline” tells of the unfolding generosities that begin when a teenage boy fails an attempted robbery of Mrs. Jones. An annoyed bachelor on a British train listens to three children their aunt converse rather obnoxiously in Saki’s tale, “The Storyteller”. After a failed story attempt, the bachelor tries his hand at storytelling and gives a wonderfully satisfying, inappropriate story. These stories are laden with humor, but have, like all other stories, an underlying theme. Both themes of these stories are “implied,” and provide an excellent stage to compare and contrast a story on.
Stavros, a student who studies English as a Second Language (ESL), wrote a short text about his experiences with his cousin’s dog named Suzie. The genre of the text is a personal recount which he has titled ‘My Animal Tale’. A personal recount is a description of an event in which the author is personally involved in. In this case, the student retells his past experiences with his cousins’ dog named Suzie. The text does not seem to be a personal recount in the form of an autobiography or diary entry which are other types of personal recounts, instead, it is more-so a narrative to entertain the reader.
The change from differing mediums, novel and film, reveal characteristics and possibilities of narratives. Through the advancement of technology, modern writers
In her bedroom, Granny is literally confined to her deathbed, revealing to the reader that death is approaching. Granny speaks of a longer life from the place her life will end, emphasizing that death could come at any moment. As her mind starts deteriorating, she begins confusing the past with the present. At one time, she remembers having to dig hundreds of postholes after her husband’s death, and enlightens the reader with the fact that “digging post holes changes a woman;” (Porter 85). The change from a genteel lift to one of harsh labor representing another type of death. She worked hard for years, foreshadowing the time she will no longer need to work. Consequently, since she familiarized herself with hard work, accepting that her death is effortless is very difficult for Mrs. Weatherall. In the end, nighttime draws near, and Porter uses the time of day to symbolize mortality; the end of day is not only passing so is Granny’s life. Similar to the candle beside her bed, Granny draws her last breath to blow out light of her own life. Just as day has its end, so does every
Some of the characteristics of Modernism are: a desire to break conventions and established traditions, reject history, experiment, remove relativity, remove any literal meaning, and create an identity that is fluid. The rejection of history sought to provide a narrative that could be completely up for interpretation. Any literal meaning no longer existed nor was it easily given; essence became synonymous. Narrative was transformed. Epic stories, like “Hills Like White Elephants”, could occur in the sequence of a day. Stories became pushed by a flow of thoughts. The narrative became skeptical of linear plots, preferring to function in fragments. These fragments often led to open unresolved inconclusive endings. This echoes in the short story’s format. The short story functions in fragmented dialogue. Focusing on subjectivity rather than objectivity. Creating characters with unfixed, mixed views to challenge readers.
Ross, Steven M. ""Voice" in Narrative Texts: The Example of As I Lay Dying." PMLA94.2 (1979): 300-10. JSTOR. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
Eileen Baldeshwiler’s “The Lyric Short Story” discusses the two different branches of short story—the “epical” and the “lyrical” (231). Baldeshwiler highlights the separate functions of the forms by focusing on their stylistic differences. The epical short story, according to Baldeshwiler, relies heavily on “external action” that is “fabricated mainly to forward plot, culminating in a decisive ending that sometimes affords a universal insight” (231). Further, the plot and characters are “expressed in the serviceably inconspicuous language of prose realism” (Baldeshwiler 231). In other words, the characters, plot, and overall tone of the piece adhere to reality. In opposition to this style, Baldeshwiler explains that the lyrical short story “concentrates o...