Romesh Gunesekera's Ranvali: A Refutation of Conventional Characterization

Romesh Gunesekera's Ranvali: A Refutation of Conventional Characterization

"Ranvali" serves as a personal reminder. It conveys sadness and regret with the narrator's realization only years after her father had died that she had been mistaken about certain aspects of him and that after this realization, she was unable to try to improve their relationship because he was no longer alive. The characterization of her father is essential in carrying across this sadness and regret because his character - the person of the father, to be contrasted with the qualities of the father, is the preconditions for the narrator's flashbacks. The objective of this paper is to refute the conventional argument that the functional role of a character makes it secondary in importance in a narrative and hence, show "Ranvali" to be a character-centred narrative. The stand that this paper takes, therefore, is that the functional role of the narrator's father makes his character an integral part of the narrative, such that "Ranvali" is a character-centred narrative.

Before embarking on the analysis of "Ranvali", it is necessary to introduce three theories surrounding the notion of character in narratives. According to Aristotle's theory of character, a distinction can be made between an agent - a person who performs actions and is necessary, and, a character - "something that is added later and in fact, not even essential to successful tragedy . . . Added later . . . if at all" (qtd. in Chatman 109). In "Ranvali", the narrator's father is an agent because of his importance to the story, which will be elaborated upon later. However, he will be constantly referred to as a character in this analysis so as to be consistent with the terminology throughou...

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...ves. By superimposing Todorov's theory of character, the second inference - this secondary importance of characters in narratives implies that such narratives are not character-centred, was made. The first argument has already been refuted in the previous section where the functional role of the father is shown to cause him to be of primary importance in "Ranvali". As for the second argument, it has been refuted along with the refutation of the first argument, as well as, the satisfaction of both of Todorov's criteria. The conclusion, therefore, is that "Ranvali" is a character-centred narrative, where the deceased father is a primary character.

Works Cited

Chatman, Seymour, "Existents" Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1978. 108-114.

Gunesekera, Romesh. "Ranvali." Monkfish Moon. London: Granta, 1992:89-102.