Analysis Of Margo Lanagan's 'Sea Hearts'

Time: How does the way the writer moves between the past and present and future affect the structure of the book? How might this technique inform my approach?

In books, the notion of time can be handled differently. It can depend on all sorts of variables; from the author, to the genre of the book, as well as the books intended audience. If an author was writing a children’s book, they would not mess with the timeline of the story as it’s harder for children to understand something that isn’t going in the ‘right’ order, but as the author writes for an older audience they can experiment a bit more.

That is exactly what Margo Lanagan does in Sea hearts. Sea hearts follows the community on and off Rockroll Island from 6 different perspectives, as they go through heartache, betrayal, human weakness and love. These 6 perspectives go through lifetimes and beyond. Lanagan moves though the past, the present and the future.

While there is no explanation, this chapter is used as a hint of foreshadowing for the rest of the book. This can been seen by the introduction of Misskaella. In the first chapter she’s the ‘old-witch’ but in the second chapter, which is from her perspective, she is a little girl. This can be seen because she is being carried down the cliff by Ann Jelly.

Foreshadowing or sign-posting is a way telling the reader that something is going to happen, and that this person or event matters (Harvey Chapman). In the first chapter Misskaella is said to be an old-witch so; the reader knows that she will become old, but they don’t know what makes her into this witch. Hence the reader knows something happened for her to become the