NARRATOLOGY AND HISTORY
In his novels Amitav Ghosh wants to reflect diverse shades of history predominantly through the eyes of distressed rather than the commanding and tormenting powers in the society. He imagines that history and accounts have fundamentally the same function. One needs to go through narrative to confront the surface of the story just as one has to travel through history to encounter pre-history. He accepts that he has always been enamoured by history.
Amitav Ghosh’s novel River of Smoke is associated to the genere of the historical novel. With the use of various narrative strategies, Amitav Ghosh in this novel has re-written history that covers the time of opium trade in Canton, in 1838. The story is about the conflict of
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It frames a string of inter-related stories from history presented by various narrators. The psychological impact of the opium war upon the mind of the people sometimes surpass the historical facts, which is presented chiefly through main character focalizer Bahram Modi, Neel, Zadig Bay, Robert Chinnery etc. Thus, Amitav Ghosh’s novel exposes the psychic sub-text that lies within and underneath the historical facts. This psychological presentation doesn’t come within the compass of history which is associated only with facts and figures. Through the characters of the novel the writer unravels the impacts of historical events in the lives of people. He presents the aggravated life that the people like Bahram, Ah Fatt, Deeti, Neel, Chinnery has to go through during the opium trade and war period in China. Through different narrative techniques the author offers an opportunity to readers to peep deep into psyche of the inhabitants, traders, officials and others in Canton and to know their past by reconstructing …show more content…
While first person character narrator portrays the internal psyche of the characters being one among them in the narrative or due to some closeness with other characters, the third person narrator on the other hand tells the story from outside by having a scenic view of the whole as omnipresent narrator. He is the one occupied in giving all details of the actions of others by using the expressions like ‘he said’, ‘they think’, ‘he felt’, ‘she observed’, ‘he notices’ etc. In River of Smoke by using third person narrative approach the author prefers ‘telling’ most of the time rather than ‘showing’. This gives more opportunity to the narrator to make remarks on both characters and events. He even enjoys the freedom of imposing his own view points on the reader. Throughout the narrative in River of Smoke the modes of narration ‘telling’ and ‘showing’ are used willingly .The perspective from which the story is told keeps on changing throughout in the narrative. There is no straight forward story in the traditional sense as in the stream of consciousness novel.
Thus, Amitav Ghosh has not limited the narrative to the technique of stream of consciousness and interior monologue only but has also combined it with three fold traditional technique direct narrating, descriptive passages and conversation.
No one knows what will happen in his or her life whether it is a trivial family dispute or a civil war. Ishmael Beah and Mariatu Kamara are both child victims of war with extremely different life stories. Both of them are authors who have written about their first-hand experience of the truth of the war in order to voice out to the world to be aware of what is happening. Beah wrote A Long Way Gone while Kamara wrote The Bite of the Mango. However, their autobiographies give different information to their readers because of different points of view. Since the overall story of Ishmael Beah includes many psychological and physical aspects of war, his book is more influential and informative to the world than Kamara’s book.
This novel and film commentary analysis or interpretation will be first summarised and then critiqued. The summary will be divided into twenty- four episodes. While summarising it is well to remember that the film was made out of the book.
The Opium Wars were a series of three wars between the Chinese and the British; primarily fought in regard to the illegal trade of opium in China during the 19th century. They manifested the conflicting natures of both nations and demonstrated China’s misconceptions of its own superiority. The Opium Wars resulted in the humiliating defeat of the Chinese to a country they considered to be “barbarians”.
Narratives are an important part of an essay as they create a sense of tone needed to describe a story or situation with ease. If the narrative is not correct, it can leave a false impact on the readers or viewers because it lacks the main tone of the story. Having a perfect narrative can not only enhance a story, but it can also prove evidence. In her essay, “An Army of One: Me”, Jean Twenge provides some of the best examples of how narratives enhance a story and she also emphasizes on how the tone of storytelling matters on the impact that the story would have on its readers or listeners. Apart from Twenge, Tim O’Brien also focuses on how the narrative of the story can help in understanding the truth and falsity of the story in his essay, “How to Tell a True War Story.” In addition to O’Brien, Ethan Watters also emphasizes on the narrative of cultural progress in his essay, “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan”, when he talks about the anti-depressants to be sold in Japan. All three authors agree to the fact that narrative, the art of telling a story or explaining a situation, has a major impact on the story and on how it is taken by the audience.
Indulging the plot into the political and social situation of Afghanistan at the time, Hosseini profoundly incorporates a strikingly realistic theme into the novel and expands the outreach of his ideas to the extent that they can be applied to the present-day state of affairs. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, the lives of the women, men, and children presented are derived and driven by the customs and traditions that root from the country’s political and cultural backdrop. Centering the many twists of the story on the political and cultural influences in Afghanistan, Hosseini develops the novel in close parallel to reality and presents a story that motivates to endure and always be optimistic. The influence of the political and cultural backdrop on the novel signifies the harsh reality of life in developing nations that persists even today and presents the hardships that life poses, along with the inequality that accompanies it.
The study of past events have been a common practice of mankind since the verbal telling of stories by our ancestors. William Cronon, in his article “Why the Past Matters,” asserts that the remembrance of the past “keeps us in place.” Our individual memories and experiences shape how we act in our daily lives. In addition to influencing us at an individual level, our collective history binds us together as a society. Without knowing where we have been or what we have experienced, it is nearly impossible to judge progress or know which courses of action to pursue. The goal of the historian is to analyze and explain past events, of which they rarely have firsthand memory of, and apply the gained knowledge to make connections with current and future events.
The story is told from the third-person limited point of view, which means that the reader sees the story through the eyes and perspective of a “viewpoint character”. In such cases, this character acts as a filter, and while we can see the internal thoughts and motivations of the viewpoint character, we can only see the behaviors of the other characters through his or her eyes.
In Pat Conroy’s, The Lords of Disciple, first person narration is used to develop the story. Seth Reilly, a writer and fiction author, talks about what first person narration is. Reilly states in his article for aspiring novelists, “First-person perspective is writing from the point of view of your narrator, putting across the world as they see it” (Reilly). While first person narration puts the reader in the narrator’s head, this point of view has multiple advantages and disadvantages. When talking about the advantages of first person narration Reilly states, “first person can effectively communicate how each moment feels; delivering sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, all through the prism of your narrator” (Reilly). This is one of the
Since the story was written in the third person objective, it is easier for the reader to remain objective while analyzing the story. If we one were to hear the story from on of the character’s point of view, the retelling of the story would be clouded with various em...
In second person narrative, the narrator is not a character in the story but "you" are. In a third person narrative, the narrator exists completely outside of the story. All characters are described as "he", "she", or "it". In third person omniscient narration, the narrator can describe the innermost thoughts and feelings of her characters. This book The Glass Castle is written in first person point of view and with that said some advantages that it has is that it mirrors real life for example. We can only experience life from our own point of view, we don't know what other people are thinking. Also with first point of view it's easier to portray the characters personality, feelings and view of the world, as they are doing most of the talking. First person point of view makes readers more comfortable with the story because first person narratives have an easier time garnering empathy from their audience, since the reader spends so much time in the character's
The narration is broken up into paragraphs of various lengths, all of which contain long and detailed sentences. E...
The entire basis of this book deals with communicating from both character to character, and narrator to reader, on a very high cerebral level. Because of this analytic quality of the book, the most important events also take place on such a high level. In fact, the major theme of the novel, that of the narrator searching for his past self, as well as the cognitive change between the "...
It combines social, cultural, and political history with the hardships and goal of a travel book. With Kim, a young white boy, sahib, at its center and his friend and mentor the Lama, we see the world of India in the nineteenth century as it is ruled by Great Britain. The story unfolds against the backdrop of The Great Game, the political conflict between Russia and Britain in Central Asia. It is set after the Second Afghan War which ended in 1881, but before the Third. The novel is notable for its detailed portrait of the people, culture, and varied religions of India.
Rohinton Mistry’s “Such A Long Journey” is the story of turbulent life of Gustad Noble and his family, who lives in Khodadad Building north of Bombay. The story portrays the series of events such as his son Sohrab’s refusal to attend Indian Institution of Technology, hardships faced by his friends and family, political turmoil and chaos caused by the war between India and Pakistan. Gustad transforms from a stubborn, materialistic and awful person to an open-minded and more adaptive to circumstantial changes in his life. Ultimately, Gustad Noble journeys to a greater understanding of his role as a father, friend and citizen of India.
“Tharoor's quest for novelty continues in Riot”, states a review (Ramlal Agarwal WLT, 141). The narrative techniques that Tharoor employs are methods that an author consciously uses to tell his story because an author “cannot choose whether or not to affect his reader’s evaluation by his choice of narration, he can only choose whether to do it well or poorly.” (Booth, 69). Nevertheless in Riot, the author uses his narrative techniques not to solely tell his story but more so to communicate his concerns to his audience. The context chosen may be fictional but the discursive mode of expression involving opposing viewpoints in specific relation to the historical events offers the historical