Storytelling Through the Use of Stream of Consciousness Telling a story through the stream of consciousness has been practiced by several authors in their works, however it is neither new to this time or a common form of writing. It is a complex take on what would seem like an easy writing style as the author sometimes has to put themselves into the mind of their character to describe their thoughts, or the author may draw inspiration from their own thoughts. Virginia Wolff’s The Mark on the Wall is an example of stream of consciousness writing as the narrator goes through her own thoughts, trying to figure out what could have made the mark on the wall. It is believed that Wolff wrote the story based on the thoughts within her own mind as if it is taking place in real time as she wonders what the mark on the wall could be. Wolff tells the story by breaking from traditional writing, which brilliantly captivates the audience by often times distracting them from the original intent of the story.
***While stream of consciousness is common,
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The story’s plot changes from paragraph to paragraph as the woman’s mind and her ideas change and go from one thought to the next. For instance, the woman goes from thinking that a nail caused the mark on the wall above the mantle to thinking that it is a “wonder is that I’ve any clothes on my back.” (Wolff) The distraction is partly due to Wolff’s use of intonation aides in this distraction from shifting from rises and falls as the story progresses (Durban, 2011). Wolff successfully told a story that takes place almost completely in someone’s thoughts and that figuring out what the mark on the wall is not the priority of the story. Wolff created a real character with a mind that is seldom explored through the use of stream of consciousness
The author tries to convey this message mainly through writing this piece in first person while using the literary style of stream of consciousness. Periodically throughout the piece, the author shows his
It was once said, “The art of the storyteller is to hold the attention of the readers.” If a novelist is able to grab the attention of the readers, they can easily convey ideas and themes represented in the story successfully to its’ readers. For instance, Zora Neale Hurston is considered to be a brilliant writer, who has the ability to form a storytelling chain within her novels and to “render a world complete with its codes and disciplines within a few sentences” (Danticat). This is shown in her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston uses various literary elements such as foreshadowing, point of view, imagery, and metaphor in order to capture the attention of the readers.
Recently the class and I read a short story called Blue Against White, which focuses on the importance of memories during childhood and how it affects one's life. Jeannette C. Armstrong the author, uses writing techniques like symbolism through common motifs to aid the reader to have a better understanding of the the hidden morals within the story. Literary elements that were applied in the story includes plot and character which also had immense connections towards the author itself. This can be shown through the word choice and the placement of the setting, which displayed a large significance in assisting the reader through imagery. The fact that Jeannette C. Armstrong developed such a self-discovery story helps bring attention
The movie, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, uses the stream of consciousness technique very well. The premise of the movie is essentially built on this writing technique. At the beginning of the movie, Walter experiences daydreams very frequently, while his actual life is very average and boring. The viewer even gains a sense of pity for Walter because he dreams of doing so many amazing things, but lacks the courage and boldness to realize these fantasies.
Rikki took to a sprint to make it to the other side, leaving Gear just footsteps behind her. The guards stopped her, took her to the ground, Gear just seconds behind ready to help her. Rikki started screaming for her old sniper friend Karolina. It was too late, separated by a demon wall. Stuck with no one, but Gear.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birth-mark” he writes about a woman named Georgiana who has a single flaw, a birthmark on her cheek. Although she thinks little of it, her husband obsesses over it. The birthmark eventually becomes a source of turmoil in their marriage. Georgiana is a complex character, who grows and develops throughout the narrative. Georgiana has a moment of clarity before her death that displays how wise she truly is. Throughout the story Hawthorne conveys many essential lessons for the reader to consider and utilize.
The writer composes the story from the perspective of an analyst. She alludes to occasions later on, facts, and information that no character could have known in the setting of the story. Incorporated into the content are genuine quotes said or composed by the general population she expounds on, including the primary character. She utilizes an extremely objective voice, giving successive analysis of distinctive individuals' outlook and continually alluding to insights to demonstrate her point. Since the book does not focus on the point of view of any single character, it peruses more like a news article than a story, which frequently exhausting its groups of readers. Accordingly, Hillenbrand's written work style once in a while obstructs the correspondence of her thoughts because she regularly includes actualities, quotes and investigation in the book; it usually bores audience on the grounds that it peruses more like a news article instead of a
‘Narrated monologue’ is the English equivalent of French ‘style indirect libre’ and German ‘Erlebte Rede’. It is a writing style defined by its description of a character’s thoughts while still using third-person point of view. This allows Solzhenitsyn to reveal the protagonist’s thoughts without a break in the narration. ‘Narrated monologue’ is used to avoid a connection with ‘stream of consciousness’, yet it could instead become ‘direct interior monologue’.
Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor discusses many topics and insights that can be found in literature. Foster explains how each are used and the purposes they serve while providing numerous examples. Many of Foster’s insights can be found in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” which was written during a time in history when women were often restricted by society and marriage. The story speaks of a woman who felt freed from the burden of marriage when she thought her husband died, only to die the moment she realized he was actually alive. Foster’s insights about weather, heart disease, and flight that are evident in “The Story of An Hour” greatly influence the story’s interpretation in several ways.
The narrator imagines his wife is a different person with the scab on her face, Charlie imagines he is the narrator by dressing like him, and perhaps even the narrator’s wife imagines that Charlie is her husband. We can also see that the novel is formatted in a way in which we can see the narrator’s entire thought process, seeing as he starts off talking about himself, allowing us to think that it is a story about himself, however he then ends it with a story about a friend, having little to do with the rest of the narrative, besides a common thread of infidelity and replacement. The narrator also seems to value certain objects in his mind, fetishizing them to the point in which he almost seems to obsess over them. This is true for both his queen sized bed and the scab that forms on his wife’s face. This obsession overcomes the narrator and seems to inspire him both creatively and sexually. If the story had been written in a more traditional form, it would be quite difficult to understand the sense of obsession mixed with the uncertainty behind his fetishism that the postmodern writing highlights so well with its almost “stream of consciousness”
In the short yet complex work “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, readers see a woman who goes through a complete spectrum of emotions in the short span of an hour. When the main character learns that her husband is dead, like most, she is shocked and utterly filled with grief. As the story continues, a dramatic change takes place within the mind of the main character, Louise. Upon the conclusion of her natural, wifely grief, she realizes that she is finally out from under the grasp of her husband and is now a free woman in a time when men dominated life at home and the goings on of society. Through his death, Louise finds the opportunity to be born again. Many of the emotions that the main character goes through are depicted through the imagery of her constantly changing environment, and the author specifically uses the architecture of her home as a main tool. In the story, the use of visual imagery projects the rise and fall of the main character as her life transitions quickly back and forth. Through an analysis of her characterization, these changes ultimately prove too much for her to handle. In Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” a character analysis can be performed based on the changes in her environment compared to the changes in her life situation. The layout of the world around Louise is used to show her initial grief, sudden realization of freedom, and her gateway to a new life free from oppression of men.
Psychological criticism pulls from Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories to better interpret the text we are reading by trying to understand both the author and the reader. These critics use this approach to understand the motive of the characters, emblematic meanings in literature and the state of mind of the author, and to analyze the reader’s response to the work. This is a great strategy to use when trying to understand Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” The story here focuses on a man who is obsessed with his wife’s birthmark. So obsessed in fact, he risks her life to remove it in hopes for her to reach absolute perfection. Using the psychological approach to this, we can clearly tell that the husband in this story, Alymer, is
The ideas of reading and writing seems intertwined; to do one of them one has to know how to do the other. Therefore, this makes both as powerful as the other in language and literature. Most authors who talk about the ideology of reading and writing, compose their works mainly based from outside sources and other author’s works. However, comic writer Alison Bechdel composes a story about the troubles and hardships she encounters while writing. This oddly more intricate story, offers a deeper look into Bechdel’s personal life in which she explains her own thoughts as an omnipotent narrator. As the narrator of her own story – showing the character’s actual thoughts apart from dialogue – Bechdel introduces her main theory: the creation of
The first person narrative is not only sending the actual feeling, emotional from the characters to the reader; therefore, it also illustrates the reality to the reader during the 19th century. The conflict between the protagonist and her husband portrays how her situation and many other women in marriage and society. As the narrator recognizes herself as the woman inside the wallpaper; however, she also realizes other women whom are being trapped outside, creeping around “I don 't like to LOOK out of the windows even—there are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast” (Gilman 25). The protagonist’s situation with her husband has an important impact within her minds and her understandings of her powerlessness in marriage; consequently, it can provide the reader an actual perspective from the narrator. Additionally, the first person point of view allows the reader to go along into insanity and encourages the reader to feel sympathy for the protagonist and other women during that time period. As the narrator losing her sanity over the pattern of the wallpaper, she becomes happier and more exciting than ever before. By Gilman’s literary devices, the narrator’s life becomes happier as she becomes insane and obsessed with the pattern of the wallpaper: “Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be” (Gilman 21). The unnamed narrator
The Development of the ‘Stream-of-Consciousness’ Technique in Modernist English Fiction (with Special Reference to the Contributions of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf)