The use of the device of the narrator and the narrating stance is termed by Genette as narrative voice. A narrative cannot influence the reader consciously or unconsciously if there is not the fascination of story and story- telling. According to Kenon there are three basic aspects of narrative fiction: story, text and narration. Todorov holds that each different way the fabula is told presents a different sjuzet. Thus it becomes clear that the act of narrating is important rather than the story. There has been extensive experimentation done in this aspect of narrative voice and the novel has witnessed a lot of significant structural changes. Narrative, the element of the story was intact in the …show more content…
It contains tremendous research the writer must have done for this work which makes him write about Burmese life with greater authority. He is very much precise about the depiction of details which makes the prose highly captivating. The main character focalizer in the novel is Raj Kumar and his being an orphan kind of identifies him with the poscolonial identity of a writer. In her essay, “The Road from Mandalay: Reflections on Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace Rukmini B. Nair very appropriately comments:
Raj Kumar’s symbolic as well as real orphan-hood implies that he has to invent a family where none exists; … Raj Kumar has in effect to solve the same dilemma that confronts the postcolonial author… he has to make sense of ‘existential’ conrundum that plagues all individual who cross… the well defined lines of ‘national identity’ and family
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He shows subjugated Burma and the attitude towards India and the Indians is starkly different from the treatment of the Burmese people. Though Raj Kumar, an Indian born, is there at the centre of the novel, but far from being a flawless character. He is the representative of those Indians who amassed wealth and attained power as they benefited through the British colonization. It is a fact that British colonized both India and Burma, but in Burma it were the Burmese who are the oppressed and exploited while the Indians as well as people from other countries were given much chances to flourish. One of such stories is that of Raj Kumar’s story of success. Through memories and stream of consciousness of Raj Kumar and other such characters Ghosh depicts how colonialism is a process where people and values are always compromised. There is another important narrative technique used by Ghosh. It is the manner in which focus shifts between one country and another. All the major characters are distributed by Ghosh over to Burma, Indian and Malaysia and then knitting them together by presenting them as character focalizers. The strand used by him is ‘history’ not ‘love’, used as the motif that irradiates the first section. Through the enormous screen that he creates over the stage of South Asia, he enacts a shadow play with characters that focalize and bring alive the colonial history of
At the same time, the narrator is also the victim of the Imperialism System itself. Under the system, it seems that the British manipulate the Burmese, but in reality, it is the opposite situation. The Burmese had the control over the British, especially people like the author who worked in a country under colonization. Orwell
I. An extended metaphor is described as a comparison between two unlike things that is introduced and then further developed throughout all or part of a literary work. Extended metaphors allow writers to draw a larger comparison between two things or ideas. In rhetoric, they allow the audience to visualize a complex idea in a memorable or tangible way. They highlight a comparison in a more intense way than simple metaphors or similes.
In this passage from The Glass Castle the Wall’s family moves into a dinky abused house on 93 Little Hobart St. in Welsh after being kicked out of grandma Erma’s house. The family tries to make the most of the house out of what little they have. The author of this passage wants the reader to understand that you must learn how to make the most out of what little you have either as an individual or as a family in order to prosper. To support this understanding the author uses the writing strategy of point of view to convey this meaning.
Logos is used to show logic and persuade an audience by reason. When the author talks about the irony and the reality of imperialism, he compares himself to the figure of a sahib. The comparison to the sahib is a term that was used to name aristocratic rulers. It is an important symbol of their cultural image. British imperialism is a hostile environment and does not justify exploitation by controlling the Burmese people. The story sets the tone of the author’s story to be un-comforting. This story shows his flaws and how he taunts others, even his own people of Burma.
“I’m thankful for my struggles because without it I wouldn’t have stumbled across my strength.” Through the eyes of Alex Elle you first must struggle in order to find your true strengths. An obstacle that most of us deal with throughout our lives. Some, more extreme than the other, regardless having the power to lift us as humans or tear us down. These crossroads are formed at different points and for different reasons in each person's life, nevertheless morphing them into the people they will soon become. Along with struggle comes forgiveness. Allowing yourself to let go of the things that cause you the pain and struggle in order to move on. Giving yourself the opportunity to wipe your slate clean and start fresh. Throughout Flight,
The scene in The Glass Castle that presented me with the strongest universal topic of theme is abuse. An example of this in The Glass Castle is when Jeanette’s parents are having a heated argument. Towards the end, her mother is dangling from the window, her father trying to hold her up. When the kids interfere and pull their mother to safety, she says he tried to kill her. In the book his response was, “I didn’t push her, I swear to God I didn’t. She jumped” (Walls 72). But even though Jeanette’s father said he didn’t push her, it is very obvious that he lied. This is because later in the book, he stated that he only believed in science, and claiming that there wasn’t a God. Therefore, his swear didn’t
This is just one example of how Ghosh is treated as an outcast in the small town of no one of the small religion. He does not fully understand the language or culture that surrounds him, which causes even further confusion among the parties. This relates back to Shelly's poem because both the visitor and the "ancient" are being observed and criticized.
Unlike Jeannette I never moved around a lot in my life so maybe that’s why it so strange to me, but both she and I have some things in common. We both don’t seem to like our distant relatives, both of our mothers like to be hypocrites, saying stand up for what you believe in and then reprimanding us about it, and both of us have been and are tricked by our fathers; in her case standing up to her racist parents and digging a foundation for the Glass Castle that the family only wanted to use as a garbage disposal. Anyway her family has issues with pride just as much as mine does, only in a different way. The Walls were and are the poorest in any poor neighborhood they move to, but they bring their misfortune upon themselves. Honestly they could
The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls is a memoir about her early years and her family situation. Throughout the story you learn about her Father Rex, her Mother Rose, and her three siblings Loir, Maureen, and Brain. With each story she tells it conveys such emotion and feeling. The theme of the memoir starts with a hopeful tone the transforms to a somber tone, this is conveyed through imagery, language and dialogue.
The parenting paradigm from the article that most matches Rex and Rose Mary Walls from Jeanette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle is uninvolved because of neglect, reject and lack of communication (Cherry, “The Four Styles of Parenting”). Jeanette’s brother Brian fell of the couch, “Brain’s head was wrapped in a dirty white bandage with dried bloodstains” (13). This shows that Rex Walls neglected the needs of his child and put his beliefs before the needs of his child (Cherry). Rosemary was unobservant to Jeanette when she was burned (Cherry). Jeanette’s recalls her first memory when she was three years old, “I could hear mom in the next room singing while she worked on one of her paintings” (3). Jeanette’s mom left her unattended at the age
Subsequently, Jeannette Walls uses three initial themes to effectively convey her message to her readers. The first theme being the idea that families have the tendency to let each other down at some point. After a typical day of Rex vanishing from the house, Walls blantly states “I waited on the front steps until bedtime, but he never came home” (Walls 132). While this event alone may seem like a huge deal, Rex’s actions that night spoke volumes. Jeannette had asked for her dad to stop drinking for her birthday and, for a while, he had succeeded.
The character in the essay even says “Theoretically- and secretly, of course- I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.” (Orwell Elephant 1) Throughout the essay there is also a tone of pity when speaking about natives. For example, “he was only an Indian and could do nothing” (Orwell Elephant 3), the tone that this is written in makes the reader sympathize with the natives far more than the British. The author does a brilliant job at using the authority figure to convey a sense of remorse for those living under imperialism.
The style of the delivery of the plot is an important aspect of literature. The way in which an author uses narrative is what gives the story substance and life. The plot of any story is just a patterns of events that have a beginning, middle and end. However, the narrative is the medium through which the story is presented and can therefore affect a text and shape the meaning and structure of the plot. The most common form of narrative in literature is the use of a narrator, which is a character that relays the story through written rhetoric.
The immigrant experience affects families in a unique manner wherein ethnicity, and therefore, identity becomes something continuously negotiated. Jhumpa Lahiri’s contemporary novel, “The Namesake,” beautifully illustrates the complexities of generational culture clashes and the process of self-individualization over the course of this experience. Lahiri challenges the often-one-dimensional approach to ethnic identity by allowing readers an intimate and omnipresent look into the internal struggles of the Gangulis, a first-and-second-generation Bengali family, following their relocation to America. The novel incorporates a heavy presence of reading, and the abundant representation of books and documents throughout it are vital to its
Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace is an evocation of the recent past of the glorious culture and eventual of Burma along with the gradual erosion of its social structure as well as economic self-sufficiency. The novel cuts across three generations of Indians who make Burma their home and leaves it under the onslaught of Japanese invasion. It is a curious fact that the past or the prospects of the Burma never occupied the attention of the world, not because of its economic deprivation or primitive mode of living, but due to its geographical obscurity. The policy of Britain is nothing short of looting by forcing the king into exile and taking charge of the country. In a matter of few decades Burma, the golden land which boasts of complete literacy and freedom from