Narrative as Determination of the Future Anterior
Narrative, it seems banal to observe, opens a space. This space is not so much a place of play for unlimited possibilities (although in the best of possible worlds it might yet be) as somewhere determined, always, in advance, by the future anterior: what will have happened and how it will already have taken place lure us through stories to their ends, become the end that shines through from the very start. Reading for the ending: in narrative, the end justifies the means; the end is the means.
That is why the distinction so frequently drawn between plot and story, fabula and sjuzhet, while handy, turns most provocative precisely when it cannot be made, when the temptation is there for us to make it as readers, when the way to do it seems at hand, but we are stopped ultimately from completing it. Too many Cliffs Notes to The Sound and the Fury have made modernist plot-story scramblings predictable, easy-to-read. But still we watch out for when the story turns out to be such that its arrangement prevents us from decrypting, excavating it. The end (the story) stymies the means (the plot) and vice versa.
At the end of “Leopoldina’s Dream” by Silvina Ocampo, we find out that the story has been told, not by a human narrator as we may have assumed in our anthropomorphic self-satisfaction, but by a little dog who, along with his mistress, Leopoldina, has--Virgin Mary-like--been assumed into Heaven. We are left with the puzzle of where this story, this plot, this narrative enunciation, could have come from. Heaven? A dream of Heaven? The end crosses the means; the story undoes the plot. More, since the first part of the story concerns Leopoldina’s miraculous ability to bring back objects from her dreams, the tale, narrative itself here, resembles one of these objects, brought back, mysteriously, from some other place, dream world or Heaven. Leopoldina’s dream-objects, much to the frustration of the little girls she looks after, are poor things, stones, grass. The narrative, likewise, is a poor object, a mundane miracle, produced by the simple yet frustratingly seductive crossing of narrative options.
Christopher Priest’s novel of the everyday miraculous, The Glamour, deals with invisibility so as to intertwine plot and story in a way that seems relatively straightforward at the beginning, only to turn into a tangle, a conundrum, at the end, much more so than the flashier (hence, more reassuring) experiments of the nouveau roman or overtly experimental fiction.
This paper examines the argument and theory proposed by Richard H. Tyre of the six basic movements of a plot in a hero story. Although Tyre’s theory does seem too narrow focused, fixed and direct to fit with the plot structure of all hero stories, he makes a great point and provides adequate evidence to support his statement.
Throughout human history time has always seemed to provide mankind with a sort of guide. As we learn to depend on these guides’ strengths and powers, we forget our own, causing us to admire their every aspect, to desire to be in their presence at all times. We turn them into heroes whether they wish for it or not, forcing them to live up to our own expectations. Whether these heroes walk the earth, pure of sin, healing and teaching; whether they wear a camouflage uniform fighting for their country and their people; whether they wear a cape and thrive in our imaginations; whether they wear a business suit and defend their government with their own words; these heroes all possess certain qualities that distinguish them from the traits of “normal” people. In the epic, Beowulf, Beowulf is a true hero and throughout the great story I can’t help but compare him to none other than Ronald Reagan, due to the heroic qualities they share.
Plot is defined as, "the authors arrangement of incidents in a story it is the organizing principle that controls the controls the order of events (Meyer,64)." The element of plot is heavily relied on in the short story, "The Killings" by Andre Dubus. The plot which is completely made inside the imagination of an author (Meyer,64), gives the audience important insight to people, places, and events in the story (Meyer,64) . "The Killings" provides a somewhat conventional plot pattern, where the character is confronted with a problem and is then led into a climax, which late leads to the resolution of the story (Meyer,65). The conventional plot is easy to follow and serves as a basis for movies and other forms of fictitious entertainment (Meyer,65). This simple, yet effective plot makes the story easier to follow and easier to understand. The plot in The Killings also includes usage of flashback as a tool for the audience to fully understand the backgrounds of the characters. This type of organization serves as a basis for the entire story and has the most significance in "The Killings". .
Katniss’ hardest challenge is to keep alive. While this might sound like a feeble task, it is rather laborious, and to achieve this, Katniss must make knowledgeable choices. She is entitled to resources around the arena, in which the tributes compete in. She uses the resources to her advantage and shoots squirrels, rabbits, and birds to cure her hunger and purified river water and lake water to soothe her thirst. Her survival also relies on the alliances she makes in the arena. One of the alliances she makes is named Rue. She is a twelve year old female from District Eleven, she is small and simply underestimated by other tributes. Rue and Katniss first meet when Katniss Had woken up from a nap in a tree, she laid her eyes upon Rue prompting her to look up. Above Katniss was a nest of deadly wasps called Tracker Jackers. A Tracker Jacker can kill a person with just one bite. A group of tributes, who threatened to kill Katniss the night before, were sleeping below the nest. Rue told Katniss to cut the nest so it would land on the group below. Katniss proceeded and killed two of the sleeping tributes. Ever since, Rue and Katniss had trusted and relied on each other. They made a perfect team, Rue had knowledge on what plants and what berries were edible, and Katniss could hunt game. Also, in order to survive, Katniss has to rely on sponsors. They are individuals in
Within the fictional worlds of Haroun and the Sea of Stories, the characters realize that stories are not mere entertainment, but are crucial to their lives. Fictional stories are crucial pieces to Rashid Khalifa since he relies on them for a career and brings him enjoyment. They are also important to a politician because storytelling is a critical part of a politician’s survival and livelihood since they rely on the storytellers to persuade and convince people to vote for them. Most importantly they are important to Guppees since they depend on stories to be the source of all there speaking, and the pages of Gup (the army) they depend on stories to help them fight. All in all stories can
Other stories explain the more distant origin of the world and emergence of the people, the development of the particular Native American population and crucial events in the history of that population, and the uncertain nature of human existence.”( Wiget) We as humans have yet to learn all of what is told and said throughout the years in history. The Native American people had different cultures which impacted the world throughout the years because they were very different from the Europeans. Unlike Europeans, Native Americans could name many more forms of “literature.” Some of them were “ Winnebago trickster tale cycles, Apache jokes, Hopi personal naming and grievance chants,Yaqui deer sings, Yuman dream songs, Piman shamanic chants, Iroquois condolence rituals, Navajo curing and blessing chants, and Chippewa sings of the Great Medici ne Society, to nam only some of the types of the Navtive American verbal expression.”(Baym and Levine
A narrative is specified to amuse, to attract, and grasp a reader’s attention. The types of narratives are fictitious, real or unification or both. However, they may consist of folk tale stories, mysteries, science fiction; romances, horror stories, adventure stories, fables, myths and legends, historical narratives, ballads, slice of life, and personal experience (“Narrative,” 2008). Therefore, narrative text has five shared elements. These are setting, characters, plot, theme, and vocabulary (“Narrative and Informational Text,” 2008). Narrative literature is originally written to communicate a story. Therefore, narrative literature that is written in an excellent way will have conflicts and can discuss shared aspects of human occurrence.
Readers are often baffled by the openness of some stories where the ending can go either way they are put into situation where they must imagine or assume how the story does end. Open-ended stories can be found in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, where few stories of open-endings have an immense impact on the reader by creating a hunger to know what happens next.
The function of cognitive literary theory is to use literary narratives in order to understand how the reader encounters and understands text as well as how the brain interacts and remembers narratives. In other words, it seeks to answer why human beings are so drawn to creating and propagating narratives either orally through communication or via written literature, which suffuse every aspect of our lives. Much of the narratives that have been studied for this purpose include complex and classic literary works whose narrative strategies compel the reader to become immersed in the fictional world created by the author. Also of frequent study are mystery and thriller novels in order to understand how gaps function in narratives and how authors
Native American literature from the Southeastern United States is deeply rooted in the oral traditions of the various tribes that have historically called that region home. While the tribes most integrally associated with the Southeastern U.S. in the American popular mind--the FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole)--were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) from their ancestral territories in the American South, descendents of those tribes have created compelling literary works that have kept alive their tribal identities and histories by incorporating traditional themes and narrative elements. While reflecting profound awareness of the value of the Native American past, these literary works have also revealed knowing perspectives on the meaning of the modern world in the lives of contemporary Native Americans.
...nt, Katniss decides not to play by the rules anymore and she splits a handful of poison berries with Peeta. She decides that she is not going to let the “Gods” manipulate the game anymore. Right before they eat the berries the leader’s voice comes overhead and tells them that they have both one. The reason he decides to do this is because the crowd would be incredibly disappointed if the “show” ended this way. This is Katniss’ true show of courage, to defy the leaders/Gods and make her own ending. It can be said that this was Katniss’ destiny or fate: that she was meant to win the Hunger Games.
In conclusion, it is hard to grasp the true meaning of the story unless the story is read a second time because of the author's style of writing.
Narrative criticism serves to help us make meaning out of our daily human experience and how different elements of our experience are connected. It is a means by which we comprehend how we impose order on our experiences and actions by giving them narrative form. Narratives help us interpret and construct our reality and “establish coherence for ourselves” (Foss 307). It is “both a way of knowing about and a way of participating in the social world” (Foss 307).
At the conclusion the reader is left with a vision of destruction of human life both literal and figurative that is absurd rather than tragic because the victims are not heroic figures reduced to misfortune, They are ordinary characters who meet a grotesque fate.
William Faulkner takes us back in time with his Gothic short story known as, “A Rose for Emily.” Almost every sentence gives a new piece of evidence to lead the reader to the overall theme of death, isolation, and trying to maintain traditions. The reader can conclude the theme through William Faulkner’s use of literary devices such as his choice of characters, the setting, the diction, the tone, and the plot line.