Comparison of Stone Trees and Pangs Of Love

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Comparison of Stone Trees and Pangs Of Love

Jane Gardam makes use of an array of writing techniques and narrators

when she writes her short stories. She displays to the reader, an

impression of the unexpected, throughout her preference of language

that gives reality to her characters. One of the ways in which Jane

Gardam delves into the remarkable characteristics of every day people

is the use of narrative voice, in first or third person. I am now

going to scrutinize two pieces of her work, Stone Trees and Pangs of

Love.

Stone Trees is written using a first person narrator, by means of this

method she is proficient in conveying her own opinions and feelings to

the reader. This is informative to the reader, so that they may grasp

the way that she views her husband, her life and his when he was

alive. The story commences with a journey to the Isle of Wight where

the reader recognizes that the widow's husband had in recent times

passed away. The widow appears grief stricken with insanity as she

signifies her loss. A principal point in this story occurs with the

way in which the narrator continually enlightens the reader, in that

she had never wanted children, but she then discovers that her husband

has a son, out of his affair with Anna. The narrator habitually uses

"you" and "I" when sharing her viewpoint in relation to her husband,

the Robertsons and their circumstances. Using a first person narrator

to account for the situation, as she perceives it, permits the reader

to discover traits about the narrator, her husband and the Robertsons.

This enables the reader to be able to share in her moment of

comprehension towards the end o...

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... The prince

fails her, as mere men do; she already suspected he would deep within

"I believe they don't on the whole. But it doesn't stop us loving

them" (lines 29-30).

Throughout the two stories, the characters viewpoints are depicted as

the most fundamental attribute. This is significant in showing the

bizarreness of common people by giving them very different

personalities and lives within their own stories. Both stories,

although both very different, were brilliantly written and a

compelling read. Stone Trees portrays loyalty, deceit, love,

possessiveness and tragedy. The reader is left with feelings of pity

for the widow, but relief for her now too. Whereas Pangs of Love

leaves the reader feeling calm as the story is light hearted, and you

want to say to the little mermaid "welcome to the real world, honey"!

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