David's Use Of Frame Narrative In City Of Thieves

City of Thieves starts off with a narrator named David. He starts the story explaining who he is and telling stories about his grandfather. David talks about his childhood as well, including details about living near his grandparents who owned an insurance company. He tells of how his grandparents sold the company and retired to Florida. David lived in Los Angeles and wrote screenplays. He was asked to write an autobiographical essay, on which he decided to write about Leningrad, the place his grandfather grew up. The frame story begins when David flies to Florida to keep record of his grandfather’s stories. At that time, the narrator changes to David’s grandfather, Lev.
This novel is considered a frame narrative because it is a story set

within another story. For example, City of Thieves starts off being narrated by David and then shortly after the narration is switched over to David’s grandfather, Lev. A supportive fact is that frame stories are usually started by one narrator then moved to another narrator. A website I came across, (literarydevices.com), includes some very helpful details about frame stories that can help readers to understand further about them.

Frame stories use embedded narratives to help tie in the context of the main narrative. Readers are lead from story to story when reading or watching frame stories. This also helps to provide different perspectives to the readers, by showing narratives from different points of view or people. When given multiple perspectives readers can learn much more about what is happening with certain characters feelings and thoughts. Having already explained what makes City of Thieves a frame narrative, I will also give a few examples of other stories and movies that are well known frame stories. The first example is Titanic, in the beginning of the movie an old woman named Rose is recalling her voyage of the Atlantic Ocean. Further into the narrative the viewer finds themselves in 1912, the beginning of the story. Throughout the rest of the narrative you hardly ever return to Rose. The movie then ends just as it begun. A popular book that uses frame narrative is The Odyssey by Homer. This very popular tale includes a few stories within the book itself. Early in the narrative, Zeus and Athena discuss Odysseus and what

he is going through. They also bring up the story of Agamemnon returning home from the Trojan War, and how Agamemnon was killed by Aegisthus. This is one of the embedded narratives within The Odyssey. This helps readers prepare for what Odysseus is about to encounter when he returns home. Frame stories are a rather simple thing to understand. Authors and screenwriters use this literary work occasionally in an attempt to draw the readers or viewers attention further into their work. When diving into a frame story you must pay attention or else you may become lost between narratives. I like to think of frame narratives as a secret weapon authors use to keep readers involved.
The embedded narrative in City of Thieves starts directly after Lev tells David that he is a writer, if he doesn’t understand something, make it up. After this statement from Lev the narrative goes straight to Lev recalling an awful, hungry, and freezing winter in Leningrad when he was young. If David Benioff would have chosen to write this novel without a frame narrative I think readers would find themselves struggling to involve themselves in the story itself. I believe introducing David as the first narrator and allowing him to explain who he was and what he was doing helps readers understand why David chose his grandfather to write about and how his grandfather ended up where he was in present day. Showing readers these present perspectives gives them a look at Lev’s past struggles and how much he went through to get where he is now. Without knowing where Lev started readers would not much appreciate where he ended up and with whom he ended up with. Another use of frame narratives that really makes City of Thieves a great story is using the embedded narrative to give it more meaning. At the beginning of this novel you get a look at how David views his grandparents. You also get insight into how much David actually knows about his grandfather’s past. He really knew nothing about his grandfather’s years growing up in Leningrad. All he knew was that his grandfather was a knife fighter who killed two Germans before he reached eighteen, which David cannot recall how he even knew this story. David tells how his grandfather who never liked saying more than two sentences at once filled mini cassette after mini cassette. This part of the narrative from David cues readers in on how much Lev is actually telling David about the war and how he grew up. Which leads right into the actual narration from Lev himself.
Using frame narrative as the literary device for City of Thieves greatly affected the way I read and understood this novel.

If this story was told using just Lev’s narration then there would be no prior understanding or appreciation for how David viewed his grandfather before hearing the stories from the man himself. Without this information from David the story would simply be some biography about a random man with readers wondering how the author had a connection with him. On the other hand, there is no way that this story could have been made using narrative from just David’s point of view, because Lev was the only one talking the entire time David was recording on his mini cassettes. I feel that using frame narrative to write City of Thieves was the best way David could to keep readers engaged and

entertained.
Frame stories are rather easy to identify and are easy to get lost in at times. City of Thieves is a great frame story written in a way to suck readers into the novel and keep them entertained. There is no other way it could have been written and have the same effect on readers. David Benioff did a wonderful job creating a novel that stays in readers minds long after being read. I enjoyed every word of this book and would not hesitate to read it again.