Narrative Techniques In Charlie's '

Superior Essays
Prompt: one aspect of narrative technique(pt. Of view, description or telling or scenic) in an appropriate passage and discuss how it functions in the context of the rest of the tale. (4-5 pages)
Main Idea: Charlies internal conflict
A central intelligence perspective allows the reader to view Charlie’s experiences and derive meaning from them. This knowledge highlights Charlie’s fatal flaw in not being able to extract meaning from his experiences. Without being able to comprehend the significance of his experiences Charlie fails to realize the disconnect between what he believes he is and what his thoughts and actions portray him to be In fiction, identifying who is telling the story is imperative to understanding the plot, the characters
…show more content…
In Charlie’s interactions with Lorraine and Duncan his attitude towards them is ambiguous and noncommittal. When they show up unexpectedly to his in-laws’ house and invite him to spend time with them, he responds: “[s]orry, but I can’t. Tell me where you’ll be and I’ll phone you in half an hour” (295). This is the second instance that the couple invite Charlie to go out with them. In both cases, he responds that he “can’t”. Knowledge of his thoughts and emotions--specifically his nostalgia for the fun times he spent with them-- greatly shapes the interpretation of his responses. Charlie could’ve chosen to be more precise and tell them that he did not want to go. Instead, by responding that he “can’t” he makes it unclear whether its his choice or not. In this sense, he doesn’t explicitly reject their friendship. It is also crucial that he ask them where they’ll be and says he will call them later. This is also the second instance that reader experiences Charlie reaching out to his old friends. The first instance occurs when he leaves a note with Lincoln’s address for Duncan with a bartender at the Ritz Bar. This repeated occurrence suggests that Charlie is not merely being courteous towards his old friends; he is deliberately choosing to maintain contact with them. If he was truly opposed to his old …show more content…
Immediately after leaving Lincoln’s house he goes “directly to the Ritz bar with the furious idea of finding Lorraine and Duncan” (296). His search for his friends is a misguided search for the source of his misfortune. Ironically, in the process of looking for the cause of his problems he is perpetuating them. He continues to choose to be connected to aspects of a lifestyle that obstruct him from escaping it. After finishing his daily glass of alcohol he sits at the bar and thinks about his uncertain future, “[h]is whisky glass was empty, but he shook his head when Alix looked at it questioningly. There wasn’t much he could do now except send Honoria some things; he would send her a lot of things tomorrow” (297). Charlie’s motivation behind his restriction to one drink a day is to convince Marion that he’s a changed man and suited to take care of Honoria. Despite being depressed about failing to bring his daughter home, Charlie doesn’t allow himself to indulge in a second drink. By sticking with his restriction, Charlie conveys that he is not abandoning his goal and remains hopeful that he will be able to eventually get his daughter back. Tragically, the reader can see that his hope is once again destined to fail because he isn’t able to learn from his past

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    You’ve got to hand it to Lucy van Pelt. She called it as she saw it. “Look, Charlie, let’s face it,” she barked in “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” “We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. It’s run by a big eastern syndicate, you know.”…

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Reading the title, Insert Flap “A” and Throw Away, of Perelman’s essay, I was immediately reminded of a tiny telescope model my younger brother purchased. which I was instructed to help him construct, along with the frustration and anger it brought me. The fate of the telescope model was as described in Perelman’s title, the trash. Through the title, the author creates a connection between the reader and himself, emphasizing that he is only human, therefore he can only follow such meaningless directions so closely. Eager to learn the outcome of this similar situation that he was put through, I was prompted to read his essay.…

    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The choice of quitting gangsterism in such a fashion proves that Charlie can correctly make tough decisions by…

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Do you know anyone mentally handicapped? Chances are you do. But have you ever wondered what it would be like to be them? Well, Charlie Gordon in “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, is mentally handicapped. But an operation gave Charlie unbelievable intelligence.…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    I.The people of Greece that lived during the mythology age cared about what would happen to them when they died. They believed they would go to the Underworld to live their forever when it was time for their spirits to leave earth. Even in other religions and myths, people believed in places their soul would go when they died. In modern society, those beliefs have dwindled. Not as many people go to a church, synagogue, or temple to worship.…

    • 1329 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The cafeteria is called the Nutrition Center; people wear their letter jackets even when it’s 98 degrees out. And why do they give out letter jackets to marching band? It’s not a sport. We all know it. This quote shows that society is at fault for Charlie’s mental breakdown because on being an outcast (alienated) and bullied because they stick to their little…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Drinking the Memory Away “First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you” (“F. Scott Fitzgerald”). This particular quote by made by Fitzgerald shows the powerful supremacy that alcohol can have over an individual’s body. F. Scott Fitzgerald was notoriously known for his intricate reflection of culture life in the 1920’s and 1930’s. With that being said, Fitzgerald not only wrote stories that reflected general aspects of culture life, but also wrote about his own personal struggles with alcohol and family.…

    • 1194 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bad Guys who are Good, Backstories, and Love Triangles: Things that Make a Good Story What makes a good story? All stories have the same elements; a plot, characters, a climax, a theme, but yet some make a reader want to put the book down after the first chapter and others keep the reader up at night trying to finish it. Certain aspects that are apart of stories will hook the reader and make it a good story. Elements like making a bad guy have the appeal of the good guy in the story, keeping the reader guessing, or putting a twist on the love story keeps a reader intrigued and makes a story into a good story. One aspect of a story that makes it good is when the reader is drawn to the bad guy or villain of the story.…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Reilly said, “What did you do Charlie forget your key and open your door the hard way. That made me laff. Their really my friends and they like me [sic],” (Keyes 6). This means that Charlie did not understand that his friends were making fun of him. Not only did he not understand the teasing, but he thought “their really my friends”.…

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One key element to any story is the point of view in which the author uses to voice their work. As characters, setting, and plot are introduced, readers are often unknowingly influenced by the narrator 's viewpoint written by the author. This power of point of view allows the author to control exactly how much information is given to the audience by limiting or providing boundless knowledge to the speaker. This element can be expanded upon by an author providing multiple narrators with different viewpoints which could result in a work with various dialects, perspectives, and biases. While many authors use an all-knowing narrator, a story written may take on another meaningful connotation if told by a character with limited knowledge like that…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the story “Babylon Revisited” the main character, Charlie has lost custody of his little girl Honoria to his step sister and her husband. He has returned to Paris in hopes of regaining his daughter along with Marion and her husbands approval. Throughout the story there are different times where Charlie tries to prove to Marion and her husband that he has been rehabilitated. At one point they have the following conversation among them two along with her husband, “I only stayed a minute. I take one drink every afternoon, and no more.”…

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Social environment influences every action done and every word spoken or written no matter how obviously. From birth, the world surrounding a person sends them small messages of how to act and how to speak. This concept is usually apparent in the written works produced by man. As I Lay Dying reflects the society that surrounded the author and points out several factors from that time in history. The novel reflects the social issues and concerns of the time such as female rights and poverty.…

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Narrative perspective, also called “point of sight”, is the angle, postion and viewpoint of the narrator applied to observe and narrate stories. (邵萍萍, 廖小云 ) It is widely used in the modern narrative works cause it can helps to arouse interest, conflict and suspense, so choosing different perspectives can make differential effects. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde consists of nine chapters, and each chapter has a brief subtitle to summarize the main plots. In the first seven parts, Stevenson chooses to describe the suspenseful incidents in third person, from the angel of Utterson, Enfield, Lanyon and Poole, acting out the evils of Hyde and his mysterious identity.…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    John Cheever in his short story “Reunion” shows the re-encounter between father and son in New York City after three years. On the other hand, Tobias Wolff in his short story “Powder” illustrate a father and son having a day together after skiing. While both stories “Reunion” and “Powder” reflect a common point of view and similar characters, the stories show a different father and son relationship. On the story “Reunion”, the central characters are the son, Charlie, and the father, not named on the story.…

    • 1320 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In writing some authors are known to select a narrative voice for their stories. Either to sharpen a particularly character in their novel, to mislead the reader from going in a certain direction, or to mystify the reader with something that might be unique. For instance in the Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel García Márquez the author of this novel uses many characters to be the narrative voices of his story. In Márquez’s novel his use of many narrative voices are used to mislead the reader from the reason of why Santiago Nasir the main character in his book will suffer a tragic death at the hands of the Vicario Brothers.…

    • 340 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays