Monday, August 30, 2010
Point of View/Allegory
Comment on something you have read that makes interesting use of either point of view or allegory. Please be specific and support your point with evidence where possible. Or, if you’re inclined to write creatively, write a passage (such as the initial paragraph of a story) in which you experiment with narrative voice, point of view, or allegory.
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This summer I read Stephen King's the stand. It turned out to be the most complicated book I have ever read because of their point of view. It is written in third omniscient. At the beginning of the book a new strand of flu kills 99% of the human population. The rest of the book describes the battle between God and Lucifer within the remaining population. The reader must keep up with over fifteen different character's and points of view. Not only does the perspective change every few pages, but the characters often dream or see visions about other characters, confusing dreamland with reality.
ReplyDeleteIt became increasingly confusing to keep the characters straight throughout the read, and though King is a very talented author, I found the constant switching a mental drain. A lot of the character's were unreliable, certifiably crazy, or extremely biased. On a positive note, I did feel much closer to the characters in this book than almost any other novel I've read. It was an extremely effective form of writing for the post apocalyptic tale, but getting through the long and tedious book is not for the faint of heart.
Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea uses an interesting point of view that changes as the story progresses. The book is written mostly in third omniscient, with an outsider telling the story, occasionally including thoughts and internal emotions. Later in the story, when the old man goes out on a boat alone, determined to catch a marlin, the point of view changes. Part of the time a third omniscient is speaking, describing the old man's every thought and action. Other times Hemingway wrote from the first person of the old man, describing his thoughts and actions, as well as talking to himself. For example, the old man includes, "Now I will rest an hour more and feel that [the fish] is solid and steady before I move back to the stern to do the work and make the decision...Rest now, old man, and let him work until your next duty comes" (76). This style worked well here because after spending nearly 100 days at sea chasing a fish, it only makes sense that they character would start speaking in this way.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite example of first person point of view is J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in The Rye. Though there were moments in the novel when I became frustrated with Holden's insolent behavior, I loved how close I was able to become with him. Holden had a very specific way of describing things and when he took the time to tell the reader "It was that kind of a crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road" (Chapter 1)I felt like I was crossing the street with him. I apologize for not being able to cite the page.
ReplyDeleteI also think that Jeffery Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides is interesting in terms of point of view. The book is written in third person limited and narrated from the point of view of group of men who were enchanted with five sisters when they were teens. The information is presented the way the men discovered it. You are never in the heads of the five sisters who commit suicide. Through excerpts from interviews such as That girl didn't want to die, she told us. "She just wanted our of that house'" (17) between the men and the neighbors we learn that not even Eugenides' own characters know what is going on everything is just speculation. I really liked this because it allowed the reader to interpret so much, and every time I read this book I think of something new. The downfall is that one must pay close attention as to which man is speaking, whether he is a boy or an adult, and which sister is being spoken of. However, moments of confusion, for me, were rare.
Unlike The Virgin Suicides, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a much more clear example of third person limited. The reader learns everything through description or through the thoughts of Francie, a girl coming of age in the twentieth century. This enjoyable book was very easy to read and I did not have an negative experiences during it. Even before Francie is old enough to speak, information shared with the reader is through her eyes. For example, one learns the family dynamic and dysfunction as "Francie lay awake in the wash basket set up near the kitchen range. She lay sucking her thumb and listening to the conversation. But she learned nothing from it being but two years old" (102).
Similar to the works that Alex and Mary Beth mentioned, one of my all-time favorite novels is written from an interesting point of view. Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Namesake" is written in the third omniscient, allowing the reader to witness not only the moves that the characters make, but to also gain access into their minds. Unique to Lahiri's writing, however, is the way that the focus of the novel changes from character to character as the plot develops. The novel begins with the spotlight upon Ashima Ganguli, a nine-month pregnant young woman who recently immigrated with her husband from India to Boston. The novel recounts Ashima's story from her arranged engagement to the birth of her son, Gogol. After his birth, the point of view shifts from Ashima to Gogol and he becomes the focal character. The novel proceeds to follow Gogol from adolescence to adulthood, documenting family dynamics, love affairs, and the trials of being an immigrant in the modern world.
ReplyDeleteThis might not go along with what the previous posts have mentioned but I have read all of Stephenie Meyer's books in the Twilight Series. These are all told in Bella's point of view but she recently wrote a novel in one of the new born vampires point of view. "The Short Lived Life of Bree Tanner" is told in Bree Tanner's voice. It is interesting to read about a vampire's point of view instead of a human's. Mrs. Meyer uses Bree to show that although the new borns are portrayed as violent and untrained, a select few realize that what they are being told to do is wrong.
ReplyDeleteEven though Bree Tanner is not focused on in any of the main books, the readers are interested to read in a vampire's voice rather than Bella's.
Jodi Picoult's novel Nineteen Minutes is written consistently in third person and the point of view switches between many different characters. Picoult wrote the book in third person omniscient so that the reader is able to see everything that the characters are thinking. Nineteen Minutes can be confusing at the beginning because there are a lot of characters to keep up with but the way that the book is written is interesting to the reader since we are able to piece together what we know through each of the character's thoughts. The novel is about a school shooting and each character has a different role and opinion in or about the shooting.
ReplyDeleteA novel that I feels has an interesting point of view is the novel "Of Mice and Men." The novel is about two friends named George and Lennie told through the third person. The third person narrating in omniscient in that you know what every character is thinking throughout the entire story. You can see the tension in the scene where Lennie accidentally kills Curleys wife and the pain George goes through in shooting Lennie at the end. This novel is one of my favorites and seeing what each character is feeling throughout the entire story just builds on the intensity and drama of this story.
ReplyDeleteRecently I was thinking about dreams, and came to the conclusion that all dreams, at least all dreams that I have had, are all in 1st person. A dream that came from God, for example, would probably be in 2nd person (You should go to the promise land!) but a dream in 3rd person would be a unique experience... Perhaps someday I'll go to sleep and see myself through an outside narrator's eyes... (Grace was sitting there, a pensive look on her face like she was concentrating..she didn't see the ax murderer sneaking up behind her..) This comment is slightly off topic and a bit random, I hope everyone forgives me. Here's a dream I had in first person November 21, 2007. If anyone knows what it means, tell me:
ReplyDelete-We had tons of rabbits of different colors in bins in our garage. The black and white furry ones looked hungry so I went into the kitchen, got some lettuce and water, and went back out. The black and white rabbits had disappeared! The last one was just squeezing under the crack in the door. I went outside and saw them all hopping away towards the street and a Big Fat Angry Siamese Cat. I went to go try and pick them all up, some got away, and then I realized that they were hopping furry black and white... caterpillars. (the end)
Something I just realized... When you wake up from a dream, your perspective is omniscient because you can put the dream in context and realize reality in ways you couldn't when you were 'stuck' in the dream.
Although I have never read Catcher in the Rye I have a feeling Jonathan Safran Foer does a similar job is projecting the tone of the main character of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar Schell. Oskar lives in New York City and is I think about 8 or 9. His father died on 9/11 and the book is his journey to find out what the world "black" (a note with that single word that was left in a box in his father's closet) means to his father. The narrative of ELIC is first person. Hearing this book on tape or even read aloud does not do it justice. Foer plays with the arrangements of the words sometimes leaving whole pages to convey the feelings of the book. For example, one page has only the sentence "Do you know what time it is?" while another says "I'm sorry." Another difficult and capturing part of the way Foer presents Oskar is the confusion a little boy goes through and the descriptions he elaborates on so you're in the mind of an 8 year old. Lauren said in her post that the way Salinger wrote allowed you feel close to the character, and "walk across the street with him" (Lauren's post). Foer sets a similar style to the way Oskar talks so when he's going on his adventures to meet these crazy New Yorkers you feel as if you are in the apartment as the 8 year old Oskar having a conversation with a man that documents an index card for every person he has ever met (one of the many, many encounters Oskar has). A lot of the book is in dialogue, which contributes to the ways 8 year olds think. An 8 year old doesn't analyze much of the conversation they have with another person, but when Oskar is alone you can see and feel the thoughts he is having about his lost dad and the confusing he is trying to sort out with the depression of his mother. Foer's description is very accessible and allows the reader to become encompassed in Oskar's journey.
ReplyDeleteThough it is not among my favorite books, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is fascinating in terms of narration. The story is told by Huck Finn, a young boy growing up in the South, and although the book gives the reader a fairly satirical view of the region, simply having a narrator living in the time gives the reader a sense of what it was all about instead of being told from a character that is removed from the scene. Also what I find interesting is that Twain wrote the book as if Huck Finn were writing it, using words such as "sivilize" (1). I like this first person narration because it gives a feeling "showing" rather than just telling.
ReplyDeleteAt the opening of the novel, Twain writes:
"The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn’t stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied. But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable. So I went back" (Twain 1)
The reader can draw many conclusions from just this one passage. For example:
1. Huck Finn is young
2. He is uneducated
3. He is orphaned
4. He is trouble
These things can be learned from this sole passage, without Twain having to say "Huck fin was a young boy that was orphaned and taken in by the Widow Douglas, ran away from her, and returned by orders of Tom Sawyer who promised Huck a spot in his band of robbers." Using Huck Finn's language, the reader gets to know Huck on a much deeper level.
I would also say that Huck is an unintentionally unreliable narrator simply because he is much too young and uneducated to fully understand the gravity of situations he describes.
William Golding's Lord of the Flies is a good example of the usage of third person omniscient point of view even though the author mainly focuses on Ralph's perspective. The case with LotF goes along with what Lila was saying about how young characters are too young to properly narrate the situations they are in, which makes third omniscient situable for this novel.
ReplyDeleteAlso, allegory exists in LotF by virtue of the relationships between each of the characters. Ralph represents rationality and politeness, while Jack represents irrationality and violence, which is evident when they draw the line on the island to separate each other, causing other characters to choose sides. On the other hand, Simon represents peace as he is sometimes referenced to Jesus Christ.
One of my favorite poems written from an interesting point of view is Ezra Pound’s poem, titled, “In A Station of the Metro.” The poem is merely two lines, but after reading these fourteen words, my view on poetry has been changed forever (I know it sounds corny, but it’s so true).
ReplyDeleteHere’s the poem: “The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.”
Wow, does that not just give you chills? Well anyway, back to the topic of points of view, in this poem, Pound is playing the role of an imagist; he is letting the readers emotions interpret the poem however they want to. Here, Pound is describing the “faces” as ghost like figures in a crowd; one can simply be seen, but their identity is unknown. But then, he continues by describing “Petals,” a noun that is usually referred to as beautiful and fragile. In my mind, the Petals represent different people; ones who stand out in a crowd; ones who don’t necessarily blend in on “a wet, black bough.” (In this case the “black bough” is credited as the metro station).
To interpret this from Pound’s point of view, I picture him sitting amongst the crowd in the Metro station, painting a picture in his mind, and appreciating the subtle imperfections that the human eye tends to forget. This third omniscient that Pound plays almost seems invisible, like you know he’s the narrator because he’s reciting the poem, but you also feel like he’s just a face in the crowd.
"A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor which I'm sure you all have read. I love this story for its darkness and somewhat evil gratification the reader feels in the end of the story. The story takes place with a family as they are driving to Florida or Tennessee for vacation. On the way, there are multiple signs and symbols that forebode the family's and especially the grandmother's death. In the final scene, when the family crashes their vehicle and is discovered by the "misfit," an escaped murderer, the grandmother pleads and begs for her own life to be spared. When she attempts to touch the misfit and call him her son, she is shot.
ReplyDeleteI love the way Devil in the White City is written. The way the third person omniscient point of view is used makes it seem more like a fictional novel than what is really is, historical non-fiction. Erik Larson really makes the reader feel the stress that Burnham feels while trying to reach impossible goals set for the Chicago World's Fair. He also portrays the charm of Holmes, a serial killer, while also conveying the creepiness of his actions.
ReplyDeleteThe book As I Lay Dying is told from multiple viewpoints. Each chapter is told from the different perspective of each character experiencing the strange journey. Not only are the viewpoints extremely different, but also unreliable. Each character has strong opinions on the other characters as well as the situations, that completely vary from the next persons. Although it was interesting to hear from completely different sides of the exact same story, it became tiring keeping up with whose thoughts were whose, especially since each character was so opinionated. On top of the main dilemma of the book, it seemed each character had a deeper personal struggle they were dealing with. Although an interesting way to engage the reader, at times I feel too many points of view can just leave the reader feeling lost.
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