The Style of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads
Bennett states in his introduction that "forms....dictate themselves" and that material demands to be "written in a particular way and no other". Each of the characters, according to the author has a "single point of view" and none is "telling the whole story". He says that his characters are "artless" and "don't quite know what they are saying". It is true that this is so. We, the listeners, can make conjectures about all of them. Graham's ambiguous sexuality, Susan's alcoholism and Muriel's perverted husband are not revealed directly through any statements made to us. They are hinted at by what is left unsaid or by what is obliquely inferred. In a very real sense, though, this is true to life and Bennett cleverly constructs each monologue to be as realistic as possible. In speaking to an inanimate object - the camera - each character is, so to speak, alone. The audience is not "there", as far as the speaker is concerned. Better still, the camera is like a hidden priest in a confessional. Each person is able to speak quite frankly to the anonymous listener. If we make judgements we have no means of interaction. This is not a two - way process of confidential gossip, for none of the characters expect a reply. Bennett lets his characters reveal themselves openly and we are left to form our own opinions of them. He calls the style "austere" and so it is, for there is no authorial decoration of expression. What each character actually says is all we are given to work on and we must sift the inner meanings for ourselves.
One of the author's most impressive gifts is his ear for idiom. All of the characters use an idiomatic turn of phrase exactly suited to their lifestyles and backgrounds. Bennett's use of cliché is extensive, each character again using appropriate language with regard to background and upbringing. Their choice of idiom is often very funny, sometimes intentionally, as in the case of Susan's "Hazflor" episode and sometimes unintentionally, as in Doris's "Love God and close all gates".
It is difficult to categorise the form of these stories. Bennett calls them monologues, which, strictly speaking, they are, but he also says that several of them could be plays.
After that he went into the Air Force academy and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree and advanced into a flight leader and training officer which then he got the ranking of a captain. During his duty he was stationed in North America and Europe. Shorty after serving in the air force he went to become an air pilot with Pacific Southline Airlines. Later on he transferred to US airways and stayed with them until he retired from commercial flying in early 2010.
In fact, several black men across the nation had mastered many of the key technological aspects of flight. There were many black aviators amongst the earliest fliers of transcontinental flights. For example James Banning, who learned to fly from a...
The flight of Charles A. Lindbergh was actually three phases. The preflight that was step of obtaining the plane, the arrangements of sponsors, and making a list of land marks. Probably the most important phase out of all was the actual flight from New York to Paris, France. The final phase would consist of a man turning into a hero when he finally reaches Paris.
Before the war, African-American pilots weren't able to fly in battle due to segregation, even though blacks have been flying for a while beforehand, including pilots such as Bessie Coleman, Charles Alfred Anderson, and more, who'd fought oppression to become pilots (George 5). Army officials thought blacks couldn't fight, aren't as smart as whites, and weren't worthy enough of operating machines as complicated as airplanes. There was hope for African Americans who wanted to fly in the 1930s, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began to build up the U.S. armed forces, thinking of military-related ideas such as teaching civilians to fly, passing the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) in April 1939, which would provide training for 20,000 college students yearly as private pilots, and soon allowed the Secretary of War to lend equipment to schools for African-American pilot training (George 6). While this program was being developed, Edgar G. Brown, an African-American spokesman for government employees, arranged an unusual flight. Two black pilots from the National Airmen's Association, Dale White and Chauncey Spencer, would fly from Chicago, IL to Washington, D.C. in a run-down biplane. They met with Missouri senator and future president Harry S. Truman on May 9, 1939. Aviation was fairly new and a feat like this was impressive, and thus, it had impressed the president. Harry S. Truman was going to help them, and with the ...
The narrator in the story “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield, is telling us this story in the third person singular perspective. Our narrator is a non-participant and we learn no details about this person, from a physical sense. Nothing to tell us whether it is a friend of Miss Brill, a relative, or just someone watching. Katherine Mansfield’s Miss Brill comes alive from the descriptions we get from this anonymous person. The narrator uses limited omniscience while telling us about this beautiful Sunday afternoon. By this I mean the narrator has a great insight into Miss Brill’s perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and into her world as a whole, but no real insight into any of the other characters in this story. By using this point of view, we see the world through the eyes of Miss Brill, and feel her emotions, even though this third party is telling us the story. This beautiful fall afternoon in France unfolds before our eyes because of the pain-staking details given to us by the narrator. We aren’t told many things straight out, but the details are such that we can feel the chill coming into the air and see the leaves of fall drifting to the earth. The figurative language that is used is superb from beginning to end. The imagination and detail made me see what was happening and hear the band play. The characters in the park are observed through the eyes of Miss Brill, and we learn bits of information of those who catch her eye. The detail of the observations that Miss Brill ma...
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.
Benjamin O Davis didn’t have any outside jobs. From when he was 13 till he was dead his whole life he wanted to be a pilot. He as a American United States Air Force general and he was a WWII Tuskegee Airman commander.
It is safe to say that the box next to the “boring, monotone, never-ending lecture” has been checked off more than once. Without the use of rhetorical strategies, the world would be left with nothing but boring, uniform literature. This would leave readers feeling the same way one does after a bad lecture. Rhetorical devices not only open one’s imagination but also allows a reader to dig deep into a piece and come out with a better understanding of the author’s intentions. Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Wife’s Story” is about a family that is going through a tough spot. However, though diction, imagery, pathos, and foreshadowing Guin reveals a deep truth about this family that the reader does not see coming.
Amelia Mary Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas on July 24, 1897. Amelia was named after her two grandmothers. She was the daughter of a railroad attorney and her family usually did not stay in one place for very long. At such a young age, Amelia's parents separated. This devastating change impacted Amelia greatly. Though it did not affect the decisions she had already made, it did slow her down exceedingly. Even though her parents both separated, her mother and father were both very supportive of her. (ibnlive.in.com 2014) Amelia had other supporters in the family also. Amelia had a younger sister named Muriel. Amelia’s sister, Muriel, called Amelia “Meelie” because she was not able to pronounce Amelia. In college, Amelia took the course of Red Cross First Aid and took...
The dialogue a narrator uses with characters in a short story reflects on how the story is being understood by the reader. A character’s dialogue is assumed to be controlled by the author, and then the reader comprehends the dialogue through different points of view in which is told by a narrator. Which point of view the author uses can change how the reader may understand the story. Understanding a story is not just based off the ability to comprehend the plot, setting, characters, and theme. But importantly, understanding what point of view the narrator is in and whether the narrator has dialogue with characters within the story is important. The short story “Lusus Naturae”, written by Margaret Atwood, it’s a short story told by a first person narrator who is a main character in the story but has very minimum dialogue with the other characters. Another short story, “Sonny’s Blues”, written by James Baldwin, is
Earhart is primarily commemorated for an attempted flight around the world that she never completed. The reason for this is because of the mystery of her never being seen again, but people after her time did not realize her further important revolutionary acts. Earhart was a feminist by actions, rather than words. “Throughout her career Earhart represented the modern woman using technology as a means to liberate herself from social constraints” (American Decades n. pag.). The author stated that Earhart was using the technology of airplanes to be reduced from stress brought onto women. Earhart later realized she could use her flight talent to support women’s rights. She went out to prove to men that women could equally do the same jobs by breaking records flying planes. Earhart wanted to be preeminent to men:
Amelia was born on July 24th, 1987. She lived with her grandparents and went to a private school in Atchison, Kansas. During the summer months she would stay with her father in Kansas City, Missouri, which is where he had a job on the Rock Island Railroad. When Amelia turned twelve, she and her younger sister, Muriel, went to live with their parents in Des Moines, Iowa. During her time in Des Moines her father took her to an air show at a state fair where Amelia had seen her first airplane. She wasn't very impressed. “It was a thing of rusty wire and wood and looked not at all interesting.” It wasn’t until years later when she had attended a stunt-flying exhibition with a friend that she became interested in aviation.
Whether a result of Emma's complex life or Agee's attachment to Emma, Agee's choice of a narrative voice only presents her life through one limited point of view. This may sometimes cause the reader to miss Agee's point. For example, after reading Emma's first person account of her own life the shortcomings of Agee's perspective are made evident.
What role does gossip have in society? What significance does it have in the formation of both disputes and disclosures? Gossip is commonly believed to be a cause of conflict between individuals in society; however, one can assert that it can also be beneficial via means of influence. In being influenced, people can harness the gossip for their benefit. Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility approaches gossip in a way that shows how it can both resolve and initiate conflicts within the novel’s plot. By exemplifying gossip from this approach, Austen’s novel encapsulates it’s both detrimental and beneficial uses. Gossip exacerbates emerging conflicts because of the both positive or negative influences it has on characters’ perceptions of each other. I will argue that the novel uses conflict-causing and conflict-resolving properties of gossip as a device for moving and turning the plot, demonstrating that to understand the novel, we have to also understand that social conversations, even the most idle and frivolous ones, are what push the plot; the things that are most important in Austen’s world — reputation, marriage, social relationships — are extremely vulnerable to influence by gossip. In this essay, I will analyze three moments of gossip that exemplify consequences of conflict-causing, conflict-resolving, and both, respectively.
Although told in an aloof and anonymous third-person, the narrativeis always shifting, almost imperceptibly, from an objective stance to less neutral observations which, because of their perspective or particular choice of words, appear to be those of Mrs. Kearney. (Miller,...