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Essay On The Voice In The Receptionist And Other Tales

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In Lesley Wheeler’s The Receptionist and Other Tales, there is an entity known only as the Voice. This Voice comes to the main character Edna as a mysterious mentor of sorts, pressuring her to act when she would rather not. It is never formally named, and when the book ends, the reader still does not know who or what the Voice is or represents. One of the main ambiguities of The Receptionist is the identity of the Voice. However, looking closely at the text, the reader can pinpoint from where this entity originated. The Voice belonged to Edna all along, yet she did not accept it at her own as it prompted her to act when she would rather leave the situation alone.
The Voice first appears at the beginning of The Receptionist with the first canto “The First Transmission.” Here, The Voice is only just getting Edna’s attention. It is not until after Edna has her own small rebellion—not answering the phone as she is expected—that she hears The Voice. …show more content…

In the first canto, the Voice is modern. When the reader next sees the Voice in the sixth canto “Hill-Top Ambush”, it has adopted a fantasy vocabulary when it warns that “this is the part where / the Riders attack you from their avian / steeds” (6.3-5). The constant changing adds to the ambiguity of the Voice, as the reader is left wondering where exactly it is going with its message. It leaves the reader questioning what kind of entity is speaking to Edna, whether it is something modern as it had originally seemed or something that one would sooner see in a fantasy novel. Yet, he Voice once again changes by the next time it appears in the sixteenth canto “After Doing the Dishes, the Hero Embraces Her Destiny”, this time being a mix of modern and fantasy wording, this time even making a Star Wars reference (16.1). Not only that, but again, it leaves even more hints that it comes from Edna herself rather than an outside

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