Literary Analysis Of Bonnie Jo Campbell's The Trespasser

A short story is the telling of a plot through narrative. As a class, we are now exploring and analyzing the art of short stories and the different styles of writing that come with short stories. We have learned that short stories do not have any specific form or way to be told. Although they have no specific way to be written, short stories can be successful or unsuccessful. In order to make their writing successful, authors try to use literary techniques to enhance their writing. These literary techniques are essential to make the language leap from the page. One story that we have read that really leaped out to me as a reader was The Trespasser by Bonnie Jo Campbell. The Trespasser is one of her works in a collection of multiple short …show more content…
They walk in to the home as the trespasser is leaving and they see all the damage that remains from the trespasser. The story explores events that occurred before the break-in and events that occur after the break-in. The speaker almost describes the story as if the person that was an investigator or a detective that has seen all the evidence. The story was being told in the view of third person omniscient. This was important to the characterization of the characters because of how the view made the reader feel like they’re the girl who was trespassing, or like they’re anyone of the family members who witnessed the end results of the break in. Through this point of view on the story, we were able to understand who exactly the characters were. The third person omniscient view helped me understand the mind sets of the characters, their state of being, and their thoughts throughout the …show more content…
Campbell was able to give the reader good information about the characters without telling the reader directly what the details are. The four main characters were the little girl, her mom, her dad, and the actual trespasser. Campbell describes, without explaining, the little girl as a girl who is thirteen and whom seems to be intrigued by the crime scene. She is an honors student who is a good swimmer. We also learn that she is living a normal teenage girl life where she swims with her friends has “frustrations”(Campbell 3) about boys, and feels intimidated by certain types of girls. The character of the girl is not the impressive part of the story, it is the way that Campbell makes the reader feel like they have a bond with the character with classified descriptions of the girl. Campbell introduces the true characters of the little girl’s parents through their direct relationship with the little girl. At the beginning of the story we only know the girl’s parents as regular parents, but as we go further in the story, Campbell begins to characterize how the relationship with her and her parents are important to the narrative. Campbell characterizes the girl’s dad as being a loving father who the girl usually relies on. She even has pink pajama pants that say “Daddy’s Girl”(Campbell 3). This lets us know that