Abstract This paper analyzes the dynamic narrator in "Two Kinds." The narrator in the story undergoes two significant changes throughout a series of events: She first aspires to become a prodigy, then determines to spite her mother and finally resolves her inner tension that initially surfaces due to the expectations of her mother. In this paper specific quotes are analyzed in order to prove that the narrator underwent a transformation.
From the Paper "In Tan's "Two Kinds" a mother's blind faith that her daughter can be a genius leads the young girl to face several internal struggles. The narrator, the young daughter, initially feels as though she could one day become a prodigy as her mother suspects. However, the narrator's mother constantly pushes too hard and forces endless tests upon her daughter, which causes great tension in the mother-daughter relationship. After many acts of resentment and spite towards her mother's ambitions, the narrator finally releases all of her emotion and leads her mother to lose any trace of hope. Unfortunately, the narrator understands her mother as well as her lost potential when reconciliation is already out of reach, although she does capture inner peace after realizing her mother truly wished only success for her daughter. The narrator in the story undergoes two significant changes throughout a series of events: she first aspires to become a prodigy, then determines to spite her mother, and finally resolves her inner tension that initially surfaces due to the expectations of her mother."
Abstract This paper is a review of Bobbie Ann Mason's "In Country" , a novel that deals with the Vietnam War on a personal level. The paper considers the message of the book, that everyone was affected by the war whether they were directly involved or not, and whether using the character of Sam to narrate the story effectively conveys that message.
From the Paper "As it is a very important part of our country's history, many books have been written about the Vietnam War. Whether they are novels or history books, fiction or non-fiction, these works explain the history of the war and its impacts on the United States and its citizens. Bobbie Ann Mason's In Country is one novel that deals with the Vietnam War on a personal level. It is told through the viewpoint of Sam Hughes, a teenage girl whose father was killed in Vietnam before she was born. Through her narration, readers learn that the Vietnam War affected everyone on some level, whether they were personally involved in it or not."
Abstract In this paper, the role of the narrator is illustrated by demonstrating how he moves, what he emphasizes and what he omits. In some ways, this narrator is similar to an historian such as Riasanovsky since both can deal with the fantastic and express biased opinions. The paper explains that the difference lies in the fact that the narrator of "The Nose" has a dual role. The paper emphasizes how the narrator in "The Nose" is the bridge between reality and the fantastic so that the reader will have no trouble in accepting both."
From the Paper ""The Nose" is a story which depends equally on insanity and reality for its theme. The insane must be made realistic and acceptable for the story to be credible. This story must be seen in the context of the entire book. The role of the narrator will be illustrated by demonstrating how he moves, what he emphasizes and what he omits. In some ways, this narrator is similar to an historian such as Riasanovsky since both can deal with the fantastic and express biased opinions."
Abstract This paper is an examination of the narrator's point of view in the story. The writer first gives a succinct but thorough plot summary, a discussion of the major themes, and a brief discussion of European colonialism in Africa. It then discusses how the major crisis experienced by the narrator in the "Old Chief Mshlanga" leads to changes in her life. It argues that the major crisis eventually leads to the positive change of the narrator beginning to see the evils of white colonialism in Africa.
From the Paper "The Old Chief Mshlanga, written in 1951, is a story of a white girl. The story takes place in an African country, and as the plot and characters develop, the girl eventually becomes aware of the injustices and cruelty perpetrated by colonialists on the African people.
"The story is set in Zimbabwe, an African country, which had been colonized by European interests by the start of the 20th century. Europeans colonized Africa in the hopes of acquiring natural resources, new markets, and new areas for investment. There was a large push to colonize Africa in the late 1800's resulting in the displacement of many native African people, and the imposition of white rule on the African populace. As can be expected, there was a great deal of tension and difficulty surrounding African colonialism."
A discussion on whether the narrator of a story can be trusted with reference to Homer's "Odyssey", James Hogg's "Private Memoirs" and "Confessions of a Justified Sinner" and the "General Prologue" to Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales".
Abstract This paper considers how given that the simplest definition of ?narrator? is probably "one who tells a story", we must ask ourselves two things, how much information does the narrator have access to and how willing is s/he to give all of these facts to the reader. It examines how we assume that the most reliable of narrators is one who knows all the facts and tells them and attempts to show through an analysis of Homer's "Odyssey", James Hogg's "Private Memoirs" and "Confessions of a Justified Sinner" and the "General Prologue" to Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" that unfortunately, it is not quite that simple.
From the Paper "The omniscient narrator is able to fulfill at least the first of the conditions which we suppose make a narrator reliable; he knows all the facts. He is, in effect, the narrator-as-God, and, as such, is the complete antithesis of human narrators who appear as characters story they tell e.g. Telemachus and Odysseus, who narrate parts of The Odyssey for themselves. Human narrators, of course, are subject to human frailties. They can tell us everything they know, but they may not want to - and when they do, they can only tell it as they see it, from their own, unique point of view."
Abstract This paper compares and contrasts Edgar Allen Poe's "The Black Cat" and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper". The paper presents a focus on the unreliable narrators in both stories. The paper describes the settings of each literary work and illustrates the reasons behind the presence of an unreliable narrator in each book. The paper explains that an unreliable narrator is one whose credibility is compromised by psychological instability or bias.
From the Paper ""The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allen Poe have as many differences as they have things in common. While both are short stories written by American authors, one is written by a woman and a man writes the other. Both feature a color in their title but the focus of the stories is on the narrator. Each story has an unreliable narrator, but "The Black Cat" has an unreliable narrator by the narrator's choice, and "The Yellow Wallpaper" has an unreliable narrator due to psychological instability."
Abstract This paper examines the voice of the narrator in Edgar Allan Poe's story, "The Pit and the Pendulum". The author discusses the Freudian psychoanalytic interpretation of the tale, and pays close attention to the narrator's neuroses regarding death and the trauma of rebirth.
From the Paper " Having made the assumption that the tortures described in the tale are to be considered as psychic reflections of the narrator's mental state, we may well inquire: What then is the Freudian psychoanalytic interpretation which can be put upon the appearance of the story's two predominant mechanisms and symbols, the pit and the pendulum. Perhaps the best approach to this problem is to analyze the textual features of the narrator's account of his judgment after the inquisitional judgment."
Abstract This paper takes a look at objectivity in this short story written by Chekhov. The writer shows how important the narrator's role is, in order for readers to get the most out of the story. In this story the narrator is particularly objective which means the reader must get involved in order to understand the plot to its fullest.
From the Paper "Anton Chekhov's short stories are innovative with reference to the narration that he portrays. His characters are dependent on mood of the writing and they portray certain points of view rather than action. Thus, the story "The Lady with the Pet Dog" is written from an observer's point of view who is within the framework of the protagonists. The observer is casual in his observations and makes no moral judgments as to the actions of the characters. Rather, it is a point of view presented casually to the reader."
Tags: story, novel, Russia, narrator, observation, reader, judgement, point, view
Abstract This paper shows how Edgar Allan Poe in "The Tell Tale Heart" creates an exquisite horror story built around the central symbol of the Tell Tale Heart of the title. This symbol reverberates with underlying symbols of madness and fear and interacts with the image of the vulture eye that must be murdered. The writer explains how the narrator's mind is controlled by fear, and this fear has lead to insanity. When the story starts the narrator has already scared himself out of his wits and at the end he finds exactly what his unbalanced mind is looking for, the absolute in mortal terror.
From the Paper "This eye become a symbol, or perhaps even a pun, for the I, or mad self of the narrator. It is an eye with a film over it, an unseeing eye, perhaps the eye of the murderer himself, just as the heartbeat is his own heartbeat. He cannot see into himself. He is so insane that he believes his plan is wise. ?Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers, of my sagacity.? His mind is so twisted he believes that in bringing fear to the old man he will be able to kill his own fear. He will not kill the old man while the eye is closed. It has to be open. It has to know fear as he kills it. The murderer doesn?t understand his own motivation, which is to feed his own fear, as a vulture feeds, unendingly, seeking one carrion corpse after another. Poe works the image so that narrator merges with the eye and the vulture as he destroys himself and the eye (I). "
Abstract Metaphors not only can be used as literal interpretation of events, but also have metaphorical meanings. A good example would be the black cat in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" and how the narrator in the story implied throughout the story that the cat is of demonic creature. The black cat in the short story not only has a literal meaning of a normal household cat but also from a metaphorical-side of meaning, as the narrator's personal demon, which haunts him throughout the story and brings him to the point of near insanity.
From the Paper "The first mention of the black cat in the short story is when the narrator's wife noticed his partiality for domestic pets and "lost no opportunity of procuring those of the most agreeable kind" (894), which includes a black cat. In the beginning, the narrator describes the cat as a "large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to a degree" (894). When he describes the cat in this way, the narrator gave us his view of the cat as an everyday, normal household cat that people who have had an encounter with cats can feel a real connection to. Even though some people might have the superstitious belief that an entirely black cat might be a minion of the underworld or a witch in disguise which his wife did when she "made frequent allusions to the ancient popular notion" (894), the narrator tries his best to also show that this is a normal cat like any other. The narrator also gives the pet the name of Pluto, which is the name for the god of the underworld in Roman mythology. By doing this, he further connects the black cat of his to something from the underworld. He also calls what he sees when he went back to check out the ruins of his house that burned down as an apparition (895) and a "phantasm of the cat" (896). An apparition is a ghost or spirit and by following what the narrator describes, his view of the black cat goes from a normal household pet to something that haunts him for months. The loss of the cat not only brought him remorse at what he did to the cat when he hung it on a rope but also regret at the loss of a fine pet."
Abstract This paper outlines and discusses how the use of an anonymous frame narrator and the primary narrator Marlowe encourage the reader to see the major concerns of the novella. These include the hypocritical nature of western imperialism on the late 19th century, the transitory nature of western civilization and the nature of evil.
From the Paper "In Joseph Conrad's impressionistic novella "Heart of Darkness" the unusual use of dual narrators is very important in positioning the reader to understand the themes of the novella. Three of the main themes that are constantly referred to in Heart of Darkness are the hypocritical nature of western imperialism, the transitory nature of western civilization and the nature of evil. The dual narrator system has a primary narrator, Marlow, who is telling the story to three people, all somehow involved in the business of imperialism, on-board a yawl called the Nellie. It also has a frame narrator, an anonymous person with some connection to imperialism who is relating the events that occurred on the Nellie to the reader. Both of these narrators are used by Conrad to position the reader to see the novella's themes. Marlow is used fairly directly and his biased point of view and definite moral sense of right and wrong are used to directly position the reader's perspective on the three major themes mentioned earlier. The frame narrator specifically positions the reader in terms of the three themes mentioned earlier. He is also used indirectly by Conrad to position the reader in terms of the themes of the novella, he gives the reader a short background of Marlow and his stories and also encourages the reader to believe that Marlow is a very perceptive and trustworthy character, therefore, his story, and so the ideas that surround it, are important and worth thinking about."
Abstract This essay is on the 1950 movie "Sunset Boulevard". It especially focuses on the role that the dead Joe Gillis - narrator of the story - tells. Without Joe as Sunset Boulevard's narrator ,the film would have never had such a dark and devouring after taste. The essay explains in what ways Joe Gilles tells the story and the effects Joe has on the story - what would have been different if Joe hadn't told the story.
From the Paper "Many believe that Sunset Boulevard, directed by Billy Wilder, is one of the most interesting films about forgotten silent movie stars and Hollywood illusions. It concentrates on several aspects of Hollywood illusions; but instead of keeping them alive, this film bursts the bubbles and gives a blunt, unromantic and realistic story about a forgotten "yesteryear" silent movie queen, and her trapped human "pet monkey". One of the things that is used to establish the form of irony and realism necessary to burst the glittering bubbles is the "dead-pan voice over" by the murdered Joe Gillis. ".
A look at Charlotte Perkins Gilman's use of imagery, tone and point of view to relate the narrator's emotional state and feelings toward her husband in "The Yellow Wallpaper".
1,414 words (approx. 5.7 pages), 0 sources, 2005, $ 47.95
Abstract In "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses the narrator's shifting perspective, changing imagery and ironic tone in order to link her description of the story's setting with both the narrator's emotional state and her feelings for her husband. This paper examines how the liability of the former and the ambivalence of the latter are both expressed concisely through the author's use of these three literary elements.
From the Paper "In "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman presents the story of a woman whose confinement for "a slight hysterical tendency" leads to mental deterioration and eventual psychosis. Central to the protagonist's decline are her ruminations on the bedroom where she has been sequestered, especially her fanciful musings on the strange wallpaper found there. Early in the story, the incarcerated woman describes her husband, his regimen for her treatment, and the room where she will stay during its duration. "
An examination of Baldwin's exploration of the narrator's personality in 'Sonny's Blues.' Baldwin portrays a young African-American who has successfully assimilated into white society and contrasts this success with his brother's failure.
954 words (approx. 3.8 pages), 0 sources, 2005, $ 33.95
Abstract "Sonny's Blues" is a poignant portrayal of African-American life in the mid-twentieth-century. This paper explains that through the reactions of his narrator to the story's events, James Baldwin is able to illustrate the shared experiences of members of his race. The writer points out that the narrator's successful assimilation into mainstream society does not exempt him from the experiences shared by other African-Americans who have not been as able to escape their social roots.
From the Paper "The main character of "Sonny's Blues" is Sonny's brother, the nameless narrator. An African-American living in mid-twentieth-century New York, he has obtained an education and a professional career, thereby assimilating into mainstream American society. Despite his success in conforming to the social norms of his time, he still is a member of an ethnic minority, and this membership colors his response to each of the main events in the story."
Abstract Many of the works of Edgar Allen Poe take us into the deepest and darkest recesses of the human mind. Luckily, we are usually privileged to have as our guide, a narrator who is intimately familiar with these gloomy, gothic caverns. This paper examines the role of the narrator in works such as "The Cask of Amontillado", "Tell Tale Heart" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", among others.
From the Paper "The fact that Dupin is the reader's guide to the depraved mind causes us to puzzle whether it is possible to understand the deranged. If even the insane follow a certain logic, even if it is a logic that is peculiar to one individual, can we then still speak of that individual as "insane?" Many of Poe's narrators appear to be more "upset" (as in dis-arranged) in their minds then completely without any hold on the wider reality that we all share."
