The author of “The Thing in The Forest,” Antonia Susan Byatt, is an intellectual with great knowledge of nineteenth century history and many other literary arts; she is an overall genre title of fairy tale lore, and expresses this type of literature in the presented story (BC 1970). Byatt creates a short story set in Britain, during a warring time, and shares the details of two young girls as they go through a traumatic experience that will be carried with them throughout their adult lives. A.S. Byatt takes a third person omniscient narration of the lives of the two protagonists of the short story “The Thing in The Forest” in order to give vivid detail, connection, and suspense to her plot. Third person narration is used to share internal thoughts, …show more content…
beliefs, and reactions of two round characters, Primrose and Penny, to its audience. Byatt uses this literary element very extensively to build her round characters, and a vivid plot. The protagonists are developed throughout the story with an insight to a seemingly ironic similarity and connection that is only revealed to the story’s audience. The two characters are named Penny and Primrose, maintaining a symbolic importance given by the narration in order to connect and contrast the two personalities. The young girls meet in a time of national crisis for Britain, presumably World War II, and instantly seem to become acquaintances. Byatt gives insight to the similar thoughts and fears the girls share, but do not verbalize. This is the basis of the relationship between Penny and Primrose. Penny and Primrose are described, physically, as “Penny was thin and dark and taller, possibly older, than Primrose, who was plump and blonde and curly” (Byatt 352). The differences are blatantly stated in order to develop a sense of the characters not having any apparent or outstanding similarities, which is later detested in the narration. The relationship built with the characters and the audience is given its strength from the usage of a Third Person Omniscient Narrator, who takes into account every aspect of the written experiences of the protagonists. The experiences of the protagonists are communicated in significant detail, most notably when describing the girls sighting of ‘the thing’ and also when describing the girls’ overall feelings towards each other or their life situations.
The author takes her narrators effectiveness to an extensive level by encompassing a diction of concrete and abstract manners. This mentioned effectiveness and communication of great detail is shown in the quote “Did they hear it first or smell it? Both sound and scent were at first infinitesimal and dispersed. They gave the strange impression of moving in—in waves—from the whole perimeter of the forest. Both increased very slowly in intensity, and both were mixed, a sound and a smell fabricated of many disparate sounds and smells. A crunching, a crackling, a crushing, a heavy thumping, combining with threshing and thrashing, and added to that a gulping, heaving, boiling, bursting, steaming sound, full of bubbles and farts, piffs and explosions, swallowings and wallowings” (Byatt 355). The Third person Narration is given more of its strength with the type of creative language Byatt chooses in her descriptions and characters depictions. The audience is able to more closely derive emotion and in depth understanding of the aura felt by the inhabitants of the narrations world when given details expressed in tones such as the one mentioned above. Furthering the tools used to strengthen the narrators effectiveness, the suspenseful introduction and …show more content…
dismissal of the narration serves part in Byatt’s successful narrative. Audience of “The Thing in The Forest” easily identifies Byatt’s use of a third person narrator, but is never quite assured if the narrator is actually one of the protagonists, Primrose.
While progressing the narrator gives great insight into the careers of adult Penny and Primrose; each went on to work with children, “Penny became a child psychologist, working with the abused, the displaced, the disturbed. Primrose did this and that. She was a barmaid. She worked in a shop. She went to help at various church crèches and Salvation Army gatherings, and discovered she had a talent for storytelling. She became Aunty Primrose, with her own repertoire” (Byatt 357). Both occupations are highlighted again, in a more connected manner to either protagonist, but it is apparent that Primrose is given less attention with hers and the story has an ending that states a moment while she was working when the narrator says “Listen to me, she told them, and I’ll tell you something amazing, a story that’s never been told before” and repeats the introductory sentence of “There were once two little girls who saw, or believed they saw, a thing in the forest….” (Byatt 366). This use of the last, and first, sentence is the final and also most significantly evident representation of Byatt’s successful and extensive use of a third person
narrator. To conclude the very appropriate and successful use of third person narration by Byatt in the short story “The Thing in The Forest” there are three major tasks encompassed to utilize the story’s specific narrator. Byatt used her narration technique to create and maintain round protagonists, sustain a string audience relationship and connection, and end the narration in a suspenseful manner. Byatt is known for her fiction stories and use or fairytale like narration technique. There is no way to test whether or not “The Thing in The Forest” would have been able to capture and audience with a use of an opposing narrative technique, but it is quite apparent that this one in particular was indeed a perfect symphony.
In today’s society, many struggle to freely demonstrate their identity in fear of potential backlash and disapproval from others. While examining the two poems within this assignment, "sturgeon" as well as "the same as trees," I distinguished the overarching theme of identity crisis, and the inability for individuals to effectively express themselves. The first poem being analyzed is “the same as trees” by Nicola I. Campbell. As a member of the Métis community, Campbell’s life has not been simple. Often, people of Métis origin have difficulty navigating their European and Indigenous roots.
Polly’s mother could no longer manage to take care of her, and therefore, she required the care of another person. All her life she grew up without obtaining proper care and because of this she was incredibly weak and in need of nurturing. Polly needed a home where the people cared for her and gave her peace and rest instead of forcing her to labor. She was unable to complete even the simplest of household tasks and Amos knew this. He provided a safe and peaceful home for her final days. Polly sat still and afraid while being sold. She knew not of what the outcome of the sale would result as and greatly worried. When Amos bought her, he brought comfort and reassurance to both her and her mother. Polly needed Amos, and he came through to
The points of view in “A&P” and “A Rose for Emily” show the fascination that people have with those in the upper class. Updike writes in the first person point of view. The narrator is Sammy, a cashier at the grocery store. Queenie, who walks around the A&P in only a bathing suit, fascinates him. Updike writes, “She had on a kind of dirty-pink… bathing suit with a little nubble all over it and, what got me, the straps were down.” (Updike, 2). He describes the girls in great detail throughout the story, obviously studying them. This first-person point of view shows the thoughts of Sammy, who is a member of the middle class. His fascination with Queenie is exemplary of the average person’s fascination with the rich. Sammy analyzes Queenie so much that he feels a particular connection to her, thinki...
The author uses diction in the passages to signify the effect of the author¡¯s meaning in story and often sway readers to interpret ideas in one way or another. The man in the story arrives to a ¡°[dry] desert¡± where he accosts an animal with ¡°long-range attack¡± and ¡°powerful fangs.¡± The author creates a perilous scene between the human and animal in order to show that satisfaction does not come from taking lives. With instincts of silence and distrust, both of them freeze in stillness like ¡°live wire.¡± In addition, the man is brought to the point where animal¡¯s ¡°tail twitched,¡± and ¡°the little tocsin sounded¡± and also he hears the ¡°little song of death.¡± With violence ready to occur, the man tries to protect himself and others with a hoe, for his and their safety from the Rattler. The author criticizes how humans should be ¡°obliged not to kill¡±, at least himself, as a human. The author portrays the story with diction and other important techniques, such as imagery, in order to influence the readers with his significant lesson.
The Forest People, by Colin Turnbull was written in 1961. It follows his accounts among the BaMbuti Pygmies in the rainforest of the Belgian-Congo (now known as the Ituri forest in northeastern Zaire). This was said to be the last group of pygmies. These people are one of the few hunter-gatherer groups left of their kind. The book was written while Turnbull spent three years with the group of Pygmies in the late 1950s. His writing is very informal as he studies this tribe and also compares and contrasts the group of Pygmies to Africans in a local town (newer tribe). He takes the BaMbuti tribe (pygmies) who are perhaps a 10,000-year-old tribe, and he compares them to a group in the Bantu village, who lives right next to the forest and are a more recent tribe. He begins his writing by introducing the readers to the pygmies. He goes through and introduces multiple families and their family members, making it more real. He introduces Ekianga and his multiple wives, Kenge, and others. The names are strange and he gets to know many so it can be hard to keep track. He explains how as western people there is an initial fear of the forest and that this fear is alike those of the villagers near the forest. This can be true for any western born person, or anyone unfamiliar with life in the forest. The villagers have a reason for their fear though, they believe in lots of magic and spiritual things and they believe that the dark forest is full of evil spirits and magic. Turnbull then continues to introduce the readers to the forest through the eyes of the tribe. It shows the intimate knowledge that the tribe has on where and when to get food, and also how to predict predators. It turns the forest environment from intimidating and unknown, to ...
A., Jr. “Peter Taylor and the Walled Gardens.” Journal of the Short Story in English 9 (Fall 1987): 65-72. Heldrich, Philip. The. “Collision and Revision in Peter Taylor’s ‘The Old Forest’.” Southern Quarterly: A Journal of the Arts in the South 38.2 (Winter 2000): 48-53.
Misery, trauma, and isolation all have connections to the war time settings in “The Thing in the Forest.” In the short story, A.S. Byatt depicts elements captured from both fairy tale and horror genres in war times. During World War II, the two young girls Penny and Primrose endure the 1940s Blitz together but in different psychological ways. In their childhood, they learn how to use gas masks and carry their belongings in oversized suitcases. Both Penny and Primrose suffer psychologically effects by being isolated from their families’ before and after the war. Byatt depicts haunting effects in her short story by placing graphic details on the girls’ childhood experiences. Maria Margaronis, an author of a critical essay entitled “Where the Wild Things Are,” states that “Byatt’s tales of the supernatural depend on an almost hallucinatory precision for their haunting effects.” The hallucinatory details Byatt displays in her story have an almost unbelievable psychological reality for the girls. Penny and Primrose endure the psychological consequences and horrifying times during the Blitz along with the magical ideas they encounter as children. As adults they must return to the forest of their childhood and as individuals and take separate paths to confront the Thing, acknowledge its significance in their childhoods, and release themselves from the grip of the psychological trauma of war.
‘Instantly, in the emptiness of the landscape, a cry arose whose shrillness pierced the still air like a sharp arrow flying strait to the very heart of the land; and, as if by enchantment, streams of naked human beings – with spears in their hands, with bows, with shields, with wild glances and savage movements, were poured into the clearing by the dark – faced and pensive forest.... ... middle of paper ... ... This demonstrates the lack of communication skills between each other, with dire consequences.
The book I chose to read is called, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by: Richard Louv. I chose this book for a few different reasons. One reason I chose this book was because I’ m highly interested in the whole concept of the book and feel very passionate about its reasoning. I also thought it would be a great read to guide me towards a topic for my main project at the end of the Lemelson program. On the plus side, I “read” this book through audible, which enabled me to listed to the book on my drive to and from work everyday. I commonly do this because of my forty-five minute commute from Truckee to Spanish Springs.
Byatt starts off by telling the reader that the girl, Primrose and Penny, were evacuees from the air raids on Britain and that they were by themselves. This allows the readers to start getting the feel for the scared children. Upon arriving at the mansion the two girls made a pact to stay together, “It’s like were orphans, she said to Penny. But we’re not. Penny said, If we manage to stay together….” (Byatt 353). Once allowed to go, the girls went out to wonder the forest, showing their independence and pushing away Alys in the process. The Thing appears scarring Primrose and Penny, then Byatt pushes to the girls’ departure. Once the girls came back the when on a tour seeing each other. Showing that they still are not orphans because they still have each other. This can also be shown when we figure out each girl is still single. They decide to go looking for the Thing but have no luck. Primrose gets caught up in the magic of the forest and tries to figure out what Penny meant by the Thing being more real than themselves. What can be concluded from her thoughts were that she has a connection to the forest and she wants to regain what she lost. Penny finds the “den” of the Thing and finds reminds of its victims. She tries to confront the Thing but she concluded nothing else was there for her and that it was their way of
The story “The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket”, written by Yasunari Kawabata, is a children’s fiction story that is written in a third person narrative point of view. The author, who sets himself as the narrator, is describing what he sees as he stumbles upon a group of young, neighborhood kids as they frolic along the bank of a stream near dusk time. He points out the extreme care that the children take in creating their lanterns, and he sees the passion and enthusiasm they have while apparently searching for bugs along the bank and in the bushes. As the story goes on, the author moves from a tone of describing and being literal, to a more serious tone that causes some serious thought. He seems to be attempting to convince the audience of something emotional.
Clarissa’s memories of Bourton, of her youth, are brought back to her vividly by just the “squeak of the hinges”. . . [and] she had burst open the French windows and plunged at Bourton into the open air” (3). The intensity of these memories is what makes them so much a part of what she is– everything in life reminds her of Bourton, of Sally Seton, of Peter Walsh. Peter and Sally were her best friends as a girl, and “with the two of them”. . . she shared her past.... ...
The short story, “Once Upon a Time,” takes a rather unconventional twist on the characteristics and aspects of children’s fairytale stories. While reading the story, it seems as though the author is writing a strange, society-focused story. In the story, the members of a suburb have had some burglaries, so they begin to add more and more security measures out of the fear they will be next. However, many aspects of children’s fairytales break through. The ...
The character attracts reader that he heard the sound from hurting the plants. "Tree…oh tree… I am sorry…I am sorry …bit it will heal …it will heal fine". This quotation persuades that he is concern about the hurt of the tree. After his experiment, he is so bored and disappointed from hearing the sound. Besides, he is hard working as he spent a whole day to create a sound machine. Then he tried to listen to the sound by taking many experiments. Moreover, he is too insane as he is the only person can hear the terrible sound. He convinces audiences through whole his
As the crowd built up, it moved towards the doors that led into the actual theatre. I could see that some type of fog machine was at work. A pale mist came out of the cracks of the door. The inconspicuous sound of music could be heard just over the chatter of the crowd of people. Behind those doors there was a thrilling adventure about to ta...