While focusing on how to develop my voice for my character, I’ve decide to compare two novels, Fierce Attachments by Vivian Gornick and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. While I read these two novels I decided to use Philip Lopate’s book To Show and To Tell as a reference for the way to tell a story with double perspective. In Junot Diaz novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar we are introduced a third person point of view narrator who later appears in the work himself telling a young man story by the name of Oscar. While in Fierce Attachment by Vivian Gornick, it is told by a first person point of view protagonist. While both novels embark on deep journey of growth, family and ideas, they both have double perspectives.
Double …show more content…
While told in first person point of view, Gornick uses her family’s cultural background and location to make the story true to herself. Additionally, in Fierce Attachment by Vivian Gornick also takes an interesting approach to the double perspective. In this novel the story is being told in two different tense and times through white space. The author decided to tell a memory in present tense and it describes a memory. Yet she would include white space and then begin speaking in a past tense voice to go into detail about what had been spoken about. By keeping the two perspectives separate yet close it doesn’t constantly take the reader out of the story and allow it to be authentic. In the beginning of the novel it starts with Gornick telling her story through first person perspective. “I’m eight years old. My mother and I come out of our apartment onto the second floor landing” (Gornick 3). Here we get an idea of age, location and slight background information but this focuses on the conversation the mother has with a neighbor. Yet Gornick includes white space and begins to recall the scene. Doing this allowed the reader to receive additional information but does not include the pitfall that occurs with retelling through a child’s voice. “I lived in that tenement between the ages of six and twenty one” (Gornick 3). Gornick goes on and gives the reader details and even advanced vocabulary that her eight year old self would not have known. I think that taking this approach throughout the novel has allowed Gornick to achieve a balance between past and present tense. It may sometimes take the reader outside of the story but it doesn’t keep them too far away where they cannot get sucked back
Double …show more content…
While told in first person point of view, Gornick uses her family’s cultural background and location to make the story true to herself. Additionally, in Fierce Attachment by Vivian Gornick also takes an interesting approach to the double perspective. In this novel the story is being told in two different tense and times through white space. The author decided to tell a memory in present tense and it describes a memory. Yet she would include white space and then begin speaking in a past tense voice to go into detail about what had been spoken about. By keeping the two perspectives separate yet close it doesn’t constantly take the reader out of the story and allow it to be authentic. In the beginning of the novel it starts with Gornick telling her story through first person perspective. “I’m eight years old. My mother and I come out of our apartment onto the second floor landing” (Gornick 3). Here we get an idea of age, location and slight background information but this focuses on the conversation the mother has with a neighbor. Yet Gornick includes white space and begins to recall the scene. Doing this allowed the reader to receive additional information but does not include the pitfall that occurs with retelling through a child’s voice. “I lived in that tenement between the ages of six and twenty one” (Gornick 3). Gornick goes on and gives the reader details and even advanced vocabulary that her eight year old self would not have known. I think that taking this approach throughout the novel has allowed Gornick to achieve a balance between past and present tense. It may sometimes take the reader outside of the story but it doesn’t keep them too far away where they cannot get sucked back