Dialogue is a writing style that present the conversations between two or more characters on certain topics. Writers often use dialogues in literary works as a narrating technique. Dialogues can bring readers into the setting of the story and make them feel personally involved. The use of conversations also can reflect the major theme of the story through narrators’ exchange of ideas. Dialogues are also prevalent in African and Caribbean poems and stories, as seen from “Girl”, “Miguel Street”, and “Night Talkers”. The short poem “Girl” written by Jamaica Kincaid uses a few conversations to support the conflict of the story. It is necessary to note that the story is entirely based on dialogues. The mother talks for the whole time and the girl
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Naipaul presents readers of the tragedy of B. Wordsworth through the conversations between Wordsworth and the child. The following conversations advance the main theme of the story. “My Mom say she ain’t have four cents”. B. Wordsworth said, “it’s the poet’s tragedy” (Naipaul 58). Through this conversation readers can understand that the society does not value things like poetry and do not care about poets. The conversation presents a vivid scene of the lives and emotions of main characters. As the story proceeds, the little boys asked “ ‘But you will be the richest man in the world when you write the greatest poem?’ He didn’t reply” (Naipaul 63-64). The boy’s dialogue not only points out that B. Wordworth does not care about money, but also shows the impossibility of him to finish the poem in twenty-one years and earn money. The difference of dialogues in the “Miguel Street” is that it presents dialogues in a child’s perspective. The dialogue shows the naivety of the child when he asks Wordsworth whether he could earn a lot of money. Such naïve dialogue directly contrasts to the cruelty of B. Wordsworth’s life. Also, dialogues in the “Miguel Street” enhance the writing strategy called “show not tell”. In the end of the story, B. Wordsworth said that the story he had told the boy previously is not true and let the boy to go away and never come back to see him. Through dialogues of Wordsworth, the author shows the tragedy of the protagonist’s life and the failure of a dream that otherwise cannot be told simply through statements. The words come from Wordsworth’s mouth can give readers better sense of what’s going on and what are the protagonists thinking about. Conversations in the “Miguel Street” make readers know what it feels like to be a poet in a society that does not value poems at all; therefore, dialogues advance the major theme of the story and establish vivid scenes of the protagonists’
Naipaul presents readers of the tragedy of B. Wordsworth through the conversations between Wordsworth and the child. The following conversations advance the main theme of the story. “My Mom say she ain’t have four cents”. B. Wordsworth said, “it’s the poet’s tragedy” (Naipaul 58). Through this conversation readers can understand that the society does not value things like poetry and do not care about poets. The conversation presents a vivid scene of the lives and emotions of main characters. As the story proceeds, the little boys asked “ ‘But you will be the richest man in the world when you write the greatest poem?’ He didn’t reply” (Naipaul 63-64). The boy’s dialogue not only points out that B. Wordworth does not care about money, but also shows the impossibility of him to finish the poem in twenty-one years and earn money. The difference of dialogues in the “Miguel Street” is that it presents dialogues in a child’s perspective. The dialogue shows the naivety of the child when he asks Wordsworth whether he could earn a lot of money. Such naïve dialogue directly contrasts to the cruelty of B. Wordsworth’s life. Also, dialogues in the “Miguel Street” enhance the writing strategy called “show not tell”. In the end of the story, B. Wordsworth said that the story he had told the boy previously is not true and let the boy to go away and never come back to see him. Through dialogues of Wordsworth, the author shows the tragedy of the protagonist’s life and the failure of a dream that otherwise cannot be told simply through statements. The words come from Wordsworth’s mouth can give readers better sense of what’s going on and what are the protagonists thinking about. Conversations in the “Miguel Street” make readers know what it feels like to be a poet in a society that does not value poems at all; therefore, dialogues advance the major theme of the story and establish vivid scenes of the protagonists’