The Wine of Astonishment - Chapters 5-7

Sample question

Characterization and thematic concerns are usually the main vehicles writers use to explore the social life/world of a text. In the examination of The Wine of Astonishment discuss the extent to which this is true by:

a)      Identifying a theme and explaining how the social life of the text is highlighted

b)     Identifying a character and explain how the social life of the text is brought out.

c)      Identifying one other element and explaining how the social life of the text is explored.

Chapter 5

• The Shouter group faces the consequences for breaking the law
• The church is attacked in the climax of a worship session
• Prince’s character fully materialized – Eva has been hinting at his insensitive and callous nature.
• Bolo’s heroism is both challenged and demonstrated – brave enough to challenge the state and well as he was defeated
• Bolo’s last attempt to salvage what’s left of his people, his culture, his community – in his eyes a dying society.
• Taffy questions his father’s inaction, the state’s action and the possibility of change or hope.
• The deterioration of society and its values and morals – evident in Buntin’s shop – run down. Not playing the role it use to in the lives of the community members – Mitchels rise is therefore imminent and inevitable.

Chapter 6

• Eva takes us further back to the period before Ivan goes into power.
• Explanation as to why Ivan was the most suitable candidate for the position is given.
• This allows the reader to further understand and appreciate the disappointment and betrayal the people feel towards and about Ivan.
• Bee and his church members demonstrated a willingness to compromise and wait on Ivan to usher in the change for them – they are still waiting – hence the frustration.

Chapter 7 – Bolo Returns

• The book returns to the present. Back to the end of chapter one
• Bolo returns to find that things have deteriorated – he now has very little hope – he feels useless in a society that has moved pass valuing what he has to contribute.
• He moves about trying to find a sense of purpose and to fit in – uses brute force to get his way – this however is the only thing he knows. He refuses to accept the change that has taken over the village.
• Bolo gets the opportunity to demonstrate his prowess in stick fighting – this turn sour as he is the only one who is taking serious – and who is willing to fight in the true sense of the word.
• Bolo is allowed by the community members to carry on with his bad acts – without him being challenged – this is done out of fear, sympathy as well as guilt.
• The reader is now prepared for the Bad John he becomes in chapter 8

Numbers

17 – how long Prince is in the Police force

16 – Taffy’s age – hence his disapproval of his father’s action

3 – number of years Bolo was sentenced – time it took for further breakdown in society

19 – number of persons Prince arrested

7 – frog vex for 7 years – comparison to the magistrate and his appearance – another of Eva’s striking images

10 – Ten pounds – court charge

21  - days in jail if money cannot be paid

2 – the two men who bought the cow

Poems: ‘Ol’ Higue’ and ‘Le Loupgarou’

The what - Content:

• Theme – The supernatural, stories used to explain unknown or phenomena. Beliefs held by society custom - culture
• Ol’ Higue – name given to woman who haunts babies – this results in sickness or death.
• Practices govern how this situation is treated – use of salt, rice grain and the sun.
• This belief has held its root and will not go away – because as long as babies get sick  and die – blame will be cast on Ol Higue.

The Form – Layout of poem

• 3 stanzas written in free verse – this facilitates the type of poem – dramatic monologue – persona’s expression of her feelings. This also allows for introspection as well as involvement of the reader/listener to participate in the situation.

The How - Structure

• Dramatic monologue
• Diction – use of colloquial and expression relating to society eg. ‘dry-up woman’
• Movements among and within paragraphs – reader/listener invited to sympathize with her pleading to listeners – then to justification of actions – acceptance of relevance to society and mothers.
• Use of punctuation and lineation – question marks, ellipsis, exclamation – facilitates the dramatic monologue style, supports the changes in emotions and the need for the listener/reader to see from her point of view.
• Use of imagery – ‘few drops of baby blood’ blood running in new veins, ‘fly come’(literal and figurative)
• ‘Believe me-‘short line – to prepare the reader and solidify what is to come – an acceptable truth.
• See Notes on English B pg. 32-33

Comparison to other poem

• ‘Le Loupgarou’ – a sonnet -   hence more structure is evident in terms of lineation, rhyme scheme
• Use of end and eye rhymes, poem divided into an octave and sestet
• Delving in the world of the supernatural – a realistic situation – a man Le Brun – being used and told as something supernatural.
• Story told as a rumour – section about him turning into a werewolf – this is to both facilitate the extent of his actions what happened to him and the women’s dislike of him.
• Use of imagery and literary devices – oxymoron ‘Christian witches’ howled and lugged.
• Both poems Caribbean in nature – custom and tradition – affects practices done and treatment given to and by people.

Ol’Higue’s story facilitates the mothers’ explanation for the unexplained (sick or dead baby) – while the story of Le Brun and what has been added on by the women – facilitates their gossip and what the community holds on to.

CHECKLIST FOR READING/ANALYSING A SHORT STORY

CHECKLIST FOR READING/ANALYSING A SHORT STORY*

Plot

• How are the events presented in the story?
• How is the plot developed? Does the author use a linear (chronological) pattern?
  
• Is flashback one of the techniques used?
• Do any of the early events or incidents prepare the reader for later ones?
• Do any events or incidents lead you to anticipate the outcome?
• What is the nature of the conflict?
• At what point does the story climax?
• Does the climax bring about a change in character or situation?

Character

• What are the types of character/s present in the story? (flat, round, stereotype, stock)
•  Are the characters believable?
• How are the characters presented by the author?
• What is the main character like?
• Does the author present fully developed characters?
• What are the conflicts that the main character faces?
• Does this character change as a result of the events that he or she experiences in the story?
• What is the nature of the change?
• If there is no change, why not?

Setting

·         How important is the setting of the story?

·         Does the setting help to develop the plot? How does it do so?

·         What does the setting contribute to our understanding of the meaning of the story?

·         Does the setting have any influence on the characters?

Point of View

• Does the point of view that is used help the author to expose the theme? If so, how?
• To what extent is the narrator a reliable witness to events?
• Would the choice of a different point of view change the story significantly?

Theme

• What is the theme of the story?
• Does the title provide a clue to what it is?
• Is there only one theme or are there several themes?
• Does the author suggest the theme through imagery?

Style

·         Does the author use figurative language in telling this story, or is the language literal?

·         If figurative language is used, what is the effect?

·         Does the author use dialogue to advance the action of the story? If dialect is used what is the effect?

·         What examples of figurative language are most striking in the story?

·         Why are they striking?

·         How does figurative language contribute to the meaning and theme of the story?

Narrative Technique

Narrative Technique

The methods involved in telling a story; the procedures used by a writer of stories or accounts. Narrative technique is a general term (like "devices," or "resources of language") that asks you to discuss the procedures used in the telling of a story. Examples of the techniques you might use are point of view, narrative structure,  manipulation of time, dialogue, or interior monologue.

Point of view

Objective Point of View
With the objective point of view, the writer tells what happens without stating more than can be inferred from the story's action and dialogue. The narrator never discloses anything about what the characters think or feel, remaining a detached observer.

Third Person Point of View
Here the narrator does not participate in the action of the story as one of the characters, but lets us know exactly how the characters feel. We learn about the characters through this outside voice.

First Person Point of View
In the first person point of view, the narrator does participate in the action of the story. When reading stories in the first person, we need to realize that what the narrator is recounting might not be the objective truth. We should question the trustworthiness of the accounting.

Omniscient and Limited Omniscient Points of View
A narrator who knows everything about all the characters is all knowing, or omniscient.

A narrator whose knowledge is limited to one character, either major or minor, has a limited omniscient point of view.

Dialogue

Dialogue is another technique that authors use to tell their stories. Dialogue is direct speech between two characters. Authors often signify dialogue with quotation marks and a dialogue tag like "he said" or "she whispered." Through dialogue, authors are able to create scenes in which characters speak to one another and voice their thoughts and feelings.

Manipulation of time

Authors also use shifts in time within novels as a narrative technique. A flashback is when the storyline jumps backward to show something that has happened before the main events of the novel and that has relevance to the present story. Foreshadowing is when the narration hints at things that will happen but have not happened yet. Authors might also use a frame story, a secondary story that is not the main story of the novel but through which the main story is told. A frame story may, as in Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," be a character in the future remembering what has happened in the past. A frame story may also be, as in Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights," a character learning of the main story as the reader does.

Symbolism

Another important narrative technique is symbolism. A symbol is a thing that signifies something else. Symbols in novels are often ambiguous. For instance, in "The Great Gatsby," much of the action takes place beneath the eyes of an advertisement. You could argue that these eyes symbolize many things: They might be the eyes of God or the eyes of the reader or the eyes of Nick, the story's narrator. Some readers have even interpreted the eyes as a symbol of consumer culture.

Narrative Style

Narrative style refers to the way in which the author uses language vocabulary and imagery; it refers to the way in which the story is organized and the way in which the events are paced. (See point of view above) and refer to page 192 in A World of Prose.

Literary Devices

·         Allusion- An expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.

·         Irony—generally used to describe an occurrence or statement that embodies something

coincidental or lucky with an added remarkable twist of fate

o   Verbal—the use of words to express something other than and especially the

opposite of the literal meaning

o   Situational—incongruity between he actual result of a sequence of events and the

normal or expected result

o   Dramatic—when the audience or readers understand something in a play or story

that the actors or characters do not understand

·         Coincidence—the occurrence of events that happen at the same time by accident but

seem to have some connection

·         Symbolism—the art of expressing invisible or untouchable entities with visible or

sensual representations

·         Flashback—interruption of the plot by interjection of events of an earlier occurrence

·         Foreshadowing—representation or identification of what is to come later in the plot

·         Hyperbole—extravagant exaggeration

·         Oxymoron—a combination of words that contradict one another; for example, cruel

kindness

sample essay on short stories

The short story ‘The Man of the House’ is a story in which a young child deals with a frightening experience.

a)      Outline the situation that produces fear in the child.                                              (5 marks)

b)      Explain how the child deals with the fear experienced.                                         (10 marks)

c)      Discuss how the narrative technique affects the reader’s response to the ordeal of the child protagonist.                                                                                                                    (10 marks)

The short stories “The Man of the House” and “The Day the World almost came to an end”, written by Frank O’Connor and Pearl Crayton respectively, are both similar. Both stories involve a young child dealing with a frightening experience. For the child in each story, their experience produces fear, and the child has to try to handle or quell their fears. The fears and situations of each child are better understood through the narrative techniques of each unique author, making the reader’s response to the ordeal of the child protagonists better.

            The mother of Flurry, the main character and protagonist in “The Man…” has become very sick. Flurry fears that this sickness will develop into pneumonia, and his mother will die. For anyone, the fear of a mother dying is a terrible experience, so for a ten year old innocent boy, it should be absolutely horrifying. In “The Day…”, the child protagonist’s experience is perhaps equally as terrifying. The speaker is an adult reflecting on her childhood as a young sinner. Her frightening experience occurs when she is twelve years old, living on a plantation that is all about religion. Simply put, the world is supposedly coming to an end, and being an unrepentant sinner, it means she will end up in hell, which is definitely not a place she would want to be “where a red horned Devil tormented folks with a pitch fork.” So now these child protagonists have to deal with their situations somehow.

            In “The Man…”, Flurry decides that he will try everything he can to nurse his mother back to health. He stays home, makes the breakfast, goes to the public house to get her whiskey, gets the doctor and even goes to get the medicine that he prescribes. Only, he fails in his final attempt to help her as he drinks the medicine, under peer pressure from a girl, which is supposed to make her (the mother) better. Flurry goes home with no medicine for his mother and ends up sick, making a fool of himself in front of his mother’s friend, Minnie Ryan. In “The Day…”, the protagonist tries to calm her fears by reasoning with herself that the world cannot end, and she consults with her wise father to be assured that the world will still be around. This consultation ends up making her more fearful, and that night she runs screaming through the community that the world is going to end when she hears a loud racket in the sky. It turned out that the racket is actually an old aeroplane. There is a major similarity between both stories here, because in handling their fears they have managed to embarrass themselves in front of others.

             Both stories are written in first person narrative point of view, and this narrative technique helps the reader to respond better to the protagonists’ situations. In “The Man …”, the first person narrative allows the reader to understand and empathise with Flurry when he fails his mother. The reader can see how he was pressured. In “The Day…”, through the use of flashback (recalling a childhood incident), the reader can see that the narrator who is an adult now understands that as a child she was foolish and in her present age she has matured.

            So in both short stories, the protagonists had to endure frightening experiences. It is interesting then that for both short stories, the child protagonists’ situation have not turned out too badly in the end, because their original fears have not come to pass. Flurry’s mother has not died (in fact she begins to feel better by the time Flurry returns home ), and the world did not end for the young ‘sinner’.

                                                                                             -Written by Daniel Battick of 4 pool 2-