Outside the Lines: Frame Restoration in Abish’s “Ardor/Awe/Atrocity”
In “Ardor/Awe/Atrocity” Walter Abish employs an unusual method of restoration as he dismantles original linear order in the narrative. Abish uses fragmentation to challenge the order and frame that other several story plots consist of. Several other stories have a defined frame because “narrative form implicitly speaks of the narrative of the nature of reality and how we experience it (1). Abish imposes unconventional systems to give structure to the chaos that he creates. Abish displays his own version of a frame by displaying each chapter in an alphabetical sequence yet is still fragmented. He also provided sequential superscripts within each chapter name that causes artificial order and “calls attention to certain words-and the nature of words themselves” (2). Abish uses facts that lead to a synthetic analysis that creates an ordering principle that works but does not connect to anything outside the narrative. These three systems help Abish provide his own artificial order and frame to the action.
Abish utilizes an alphabetical system that recreates a linear order that was shattered with fragmented narration. There are twenty – seven chapters that are each titled with three different words yet the words are in alphabetical order. This establishes a type of linear order which gives “form to create a stream of consciousness …” (1).
The first chapter title is “Ardor/Awe/ Atrocity” and this helps start off the story by implying that there must be some act of passion or enthusiastic state of being taking place. This describes Jane’s actions in more depth and gives some explanation of her hopeful traveling to a possible better and more glamorous life. Each wor...
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...os by using stereotypical images of people in L.A. and how it is so rich and where fame is found. He does not actually know Jane and he creates a character that plays a role in events that are chaotic and fragmented but he still tends to craft artificial linear order. He recreates frame in this “realistic fiction” (2) by embracing tools such as giving the chapters alphabetical order even though each chapter holds events that do not line up because of Abish’s fragmented narration. Abish also rebuilds linear order with the use of superscripts that are there to shoe some type of straight form because they hold no other meaning and lead to nothing else outside of the narrative. Abish also gives facts that give the narrative a synthetic analysis and a false ordering principle. Walter Abish reaches outside the lines to bring in new boundaries and construct his own frame.
The middle structure of Saint Monkey and “Trilobites” are written both using the same type of structure. Each story starts with an array of events that is presently happening when suddenly the author enters a plot twist in the stories which in these stories happen to be a flashback. The flashback in Saint Monkey and “Trilobites” is what makes the readers stay interested in the stories.
The novel is organized in an unusual manner that can make it seem unclear to the reader. Krakauer does not introduce the work as a whole, yet he pieces together the story through different chapters. McCandless’s journey is described out of chronological order, requiring the audience to pay careful attention in order to understand the events that unfold.
perceive the novel in the rational of an eleven-year-old girl. One short, simple sentence is followed by another , relating each in an easy flow of thoughts. Gibbons allows this stream of thoughts to again emphasize the childish perception of life’s greatest tragedies. For example, Gibbons uses the simple diction and stream of consciousness as Ellen searches herself for the true person she is. Gibbons uses this to show the reader how Ellen is an average girl who enjoys all of the things normal children relish and to contrast the naive lucidity of the sentences to the depth of the conceptions which Ellen has such a simplistic way of explaining.
In Absalom, Absalom! the act of narration blurs the selfhood of the characters. Quentin and Shreve lose their senses of self while relaying the story of the Sutpens. They become the people they are relating the story of, most notably Bon and Henry. The act of narrating has a way of moving characters outside of selfhood and into a state of fluidity that allows the story-tellers to re-create the tale in a way that changes it from its original and gives it a newly invented life.
The author uses short, simple sentences that manage to say a lot in a few words. The author also uses imagery. He also puts in his book references to historical events. These references increase the understanding and appreciation of Billy's story by suggesting historical and literary parallels to the personal events in his life. The novel does not have smooth transitions from one event to the next.
In contrast, syntax provides a new perspective to the narrator s behavior as sentence structure draws attention to her erratic behavior. By her last entry, the narrator s sentences have become short and simple. Paragraphs 227 through 238 contain few adjectives resulting in limited descriptions yet her short sentences emphasize her actions providing plenty of imagery. The syntax quickly pulls the reader through the end as the narrator reaches an end to her madness.
From an early age Jane is aware she is at a disadvantage, yet she learns how to break free from her entrapment by following her heart. Jane appears as not only the main character in the text, but also a female narrator. Being a female narrator suggests a strong independent woman, but Jane does not seem quite that.
Vonnegut’s uniqueness of style includes not only the descriptions of events but their arrangement as well. The narrator tells his friend that “It is so short and jumbled and jangled Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre” (Vonnegut 24). Starting du...
Through the use of Shelley’s frame narrative, the reader was offered multiple perspectives to one text. Because of the multiple views, the readers change their attitudes and search for a deeper meaning behind the frame narrative. Frankenstein’s story related to Walton’s in the same way that the monster related to Victor’s narrative. By using Walton as the primary narrator, the author builds suspense and presents the readers with more details about the narrators in their emotions and drives.
We learn that Jane is a young girl who is a victim of emotional and
Last but not least, O’Connor confirms that even a short story is a multi-layer compound that on the surface may deter even the most enthusiastic reader, but when handled with more care, it conveys universal truths by means of straightforward or violent situations. She herself wished her message to appeal to the readers who, if careful enough, “(…)will come to see it as something more than an account of a family murdered on the way to Florida.”
Jane does not experience a typical family life throughout the novel. Her various living arrangements led her through different households, yet none were a representation of the norm of family life in the nineteenth century. Through research of families in the nineteenth century, it is clear that Jane’s life does not follow with the stereotypical family made up of a patriarchal father and nurturing mother, both whose primary focus was in raising their children. Jane’s life was void of this true family experience so common during the nineteenth century. Yet, Jane is surrounded by men, who in giving an accurate portrayal of fathers and masculinity in the nineteenth century, fulfill on one hand the father role that had never been present in her life, and on the other hand the husband portrait that Jane seeks out throughout the novel.
By the use of figurative words, bold details, characterization, and setting is able to captivate and depict these themes fully. Single effect enables the audience(readers) to be able to understand the story while still being able to question it. This story has the ability to surpass from being two dimensional, simple words, to three dimensional gravitating the audience
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.
In the simplest form, there is a basic structural pattern to narratives, as expressed through Tzvetan Todorov’s explanation of narrative movement between two equilibriums. A narrative begins in a stable position until something causes disequilibrium, however, by the end of the story, the equilibrium is re-established, though it is different than the beginning (O’Shaughnessy 1999: 268). Joseph Cam...