Narratology

Henry James’ Brooksmith is the narration by an unnamed character about his experiences with a servant names Brooksmith during and after his conversations with Brooksmith’s master Mr Offord. In the story, Brooksmith starts off as more of a background character to the narrators and Mr. Offord’s conversations. But as the story goes on, Mr.Offord becomes ill, ultimately bringing Brooksmith into the story’s spotlight. Later on in the story we see the death of Mr.Offord, and then begins the decline of…

First Person Narrator Analysis In copious novels, poems and biographies, war relentlessly preys on hope, innocence and humanity, abandoning the wreck full of bewilderment and anguish. In the short novel In Another Country, Ernest Hemingway employs first person narration to illustrate the detachment and loneliness of the wounded soldier through the transition from emotionless, declarative narrations to a subtle disclose of longing for acceptance, revealing the destruction of war through…

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 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…

In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred is the narrator and a protagonist in the story as well. Margaret Atwood, the author of the narrative, chose to use a first-person narrator in the story who gives a tale from her point-of-view explaining the events and memories that took place around her. Importantly, Offred gives the narration as the events happen and shows a reader her thoughts through digressions and flashbacks. Offred is a Handmaid in the Gilead Republic, which is a state…

Writers use elements of writing to help create the reason behind their stories. William Faulkner and Tom Whitecloud are both writers who expressed their stories using plot and structure. Plot is the ideas or reasons as to why certain things happen in a story, elements of plot help the reader understand the story. For example, the suspense, conflict, exposition, rising action, crisis, resolution etc. of the story. Whereas structure, on the other hand, is the way the writer arranges the story’s…

Vladimir Nabokov’s, Lolita, shows off his extraordinary narrative skills which bring a visionary insight into the issue of morality, a romantic verse and a grasp of human character that seem unique as his own. He uses first-person narration to affect the reader’s perception of the events being described in the novel through the use of stylistic devices. Thus, able to manipulate the reader’s beliefs and train of thought, to dictate what the they should think. More specific to the factors…

The plot of a story is the sequences of events that help a story reach its end. A story will always have events in it that are used to propel it forward. While some events are used to provide information about the setting and some background information, other events can help the story reach its conclusion. The plot of a story usually has 5 parts: beginning with the exposition, then the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution which is the ending of a story. The…

Short stories are “an invented prose narrative shorter than a novel usually dealing with a few characters and aiming at unity of effect and often concentrating on the creation of mood rather than plot.” (Merriam – Webster) These can have many differences and similarities. These factors could be the setting, the plot, the characters, point of view, tone, symbolism, theme, language, narrated time, content and more. “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he…

Subjectivity Another characteristic of dark romanticism found in "Ligeia" is subjectivity. All Poe's stories were written in the first person narration. Poe's way to shorten the distance and to get closer to the reader is by using first person voice. When the distance is close, the reader get all events and information from the narrator. So, the only source of information presented was by the narrator . It is impassible to considers the work not subjective since it built on the…