Mode of production

When considering a story such as The Immortals, one must take into account not only the contents, characters and setting of the story, but the manner in which it is told, and the perspective by which it is narrated. All of these components are certainly full of importance, but all of them must be valued equally or the balance would tip and fall crashing down from the point all the best stories, like The Immortals, strive to reach. Unfortunately, there is a surprising amount of rather irritable…

Third-person limited narration and first-person present tense/retrospective narration are two different types of narrations used in literature. These narrations can be seen in Uplike’s “A & P” and Cheever’s “The Swimmer”. “A & P” is about a man named Sammy who works in a grocery store. He notices a group of three girls dressed in bathing suits walk in. As they walk around the store, Sammy cannot stop looking at them. As the story progresses, Lengel, the manager, ends up telling the girls they…

Leave it to writer/director Park Chan-wook to not leave any stone unturned in his erotically-charged and stylish drama The Handmaiden. We have mystery, betrayal, an explicit love affair, and a healthy dose of cringe-worthy violence and unreliable narrators all conveniently tucked inside a beautifully composed costume drama set in 1930s Korea, where a manipulative con man sets in motion his most complicated ruse to date. Told as a triptych, where three segments are referenced as "books", The…

Strength and Vulnerability in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Throughout his famous novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey shows that power and vulnerability are largely subjective, and people often only have power because others think that they do. Chief Bromden’s unreliable narration depicts all kinds of power as physical size despite a character’s real size or physical ability. Nurse Ratched’s power over the rest of the characters, and McMurphy’s ability to resist it, shows that…

The Lack of Narrator Credibility in “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula LeGuin “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula LeGuin is narrated by an unreliable narrator, which results in storyworld contradictions, and both intentional and unintentional misdirection. The world of Omelas is presented as one that drastically shifts according to the narrators will. The lack of rules in the beginning of the text illustrates the characters as peaceful and content who have set morals. As…

In Max Porter’s Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, a woman passes, which sends the husband and two boys to the depths of sadness. Thus, the state of grief is examined. Porter wrote this as a hybrid novel, meaning that he combines a range of genres in separate stories to reveal a central, underlying theme. Through the use of disconnecting narratives with varying forms of literature, Porter portrays Dad and Boys’ lamentation to suggest that individuals manage grief differently. Porter implies that…

“Why I Live at the P.O” by Eudora Welty is about the main character 's sister and “adopted” daughter who moves back in with their Mama, Papa-Daddy, and Uncle Rondo because of a divorce with Mr. Whitaker. When Stella-Ronda, the main character 's sister, arrives on the Fourth of July, the main character, Sister, starts questioning if Stella-Ronda 's adopted daughter is really adopted. Sister is suspicious that Shirley-T is actually Stella-Ronda 's real, biological, daughter. Stella-Ronda becomes…

In Atwood’s “Happy Endings” the slightest factor like age, job, and personality can change the outcome of a story but no matter what, the ending will always be the same. Her choice of narrative helps us to focus on the changing scenarios of the story that eventually lead to the same ending. She alternates through second and third person point of view, to lead us through the story. Regardless of the way the story starts eventually all the characters die, so in “Happy Endings” the most important…

People aways say don 't judge a book by its cover, but if you think about it book covers are very important. Book covers need to be intriguing to the reader to make the reader want to read the book. Throughout all of my schooling have found that most of the books I need to read have horrible covers. You have to ask yourself, Will I even read this book? Or does this cover make me what to read this book? I believe that when you buy something you have to have a personal connection to enjoy it fully…

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is an ambitious novel that changes between characters in the story. By doing this Faulkner assists to show how the characters reason and act without being limited to just one point of view. This also evolves the story by not being limited to being narrated by one character from this the reader acquire inside information from all of the characters, not just one single character and what they judge about other people are discerning. There are various notable…