English 104 - Introduction to Narrative
Chris Johnson
Blinded by desire: Narrators without credibility
Category: 2 Essay: Carroll, Twain, Faulkner, Sebold | Chris Johnson
Storytellers must be scrutinized, for they do not always give an unbiased narration of their story. Deciding whether or not a narrator is credible - an important decision that will affect one’s opinions about characters, plot, even the narrator himself - is not always easy, however. Some narrators, like...
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Posted by cjohnso2 on December 09, 2003 at 01:54 AM
A Susie in a Bottle
Category: 10 Blog: The Lovely Bones | Chris Johnson
Susie’s father’s talent of building ships in bottles is a representation of his approach to raising his daughter. When Jack begins building the ship, it is still outside of the bottle, and he has the freedom and ability to shape it and create it - just as he was able...
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Posted by cjohnso2 on December 04, 2003 at 02:43 AM
Actions Vs. Words
Category: 09 Blog: As I Lay Dying | Chris Johnson
Placing Addie’s monologue in between those of Cora and Whitfield strengthens a message about Addie’s feelings on truth, and how it is and is not conveyed. Addie’s value of truth and honesty is seen not only in her monologue – “I hid nothing. I tried to deceive no one,” (p.175)...
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Posted by cjohnso2 on November 25, 2003 at 04:37 AM
Dealing with Mom's Death
Category: 08 Blog: As I Lay Dying | Chris Johnson
After Addie Bundren dies, two of her sons, Vardaman and Darl, start referring to her in very strange ways. Though their descriptions are very different from one another, they say much about how each character deals with his mother’s passing. Vardaman’s claim that his “mother is a fish,” (p. 84)...
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Posted by cjohnso2 on November 18, 2003 at 02:55 AM
Promoting Huck's Self-Respect
Category: 06 Blog: Huckleberry Finn | Chris Johnson
Huck “make[s] allowances,” (p. 170) for the King and the Duke because he not only has a sort of respect for them, but also because they allow him to have a certain respect for himself. Though Huck realizes that both men are “low-down,” (p. 142) at heart, he admires the...
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Posted by cjohnso2 on November 04, 2003 at 01:44 AM
The Not-So-Selfless Widow
Category: 05 Blog: Huckleberry Finn | Chris Johnson
The Widow’s portrayed as a selfless woman - intent on helping others. Some of her actions support this statement: she cares for Huck as her own and tries to “get the court to take [Huck] away from [his abusive father] and…be [Huck’s] guardian” (p. 33); and she also “try to...
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Posted by cjohnso2 on October 28, 2003 at 12:01 AM
Character Definition Through Character Repetition
Category: 11 Essay: James and Bronte | Chris Johnson
What a person wants, their goals and the motives behind what they do, can define the type of person a character in a story is. However, since questions of character definition often cannot be answered clearly with a mere description of character activity, such descriptions are often supplemented by other...
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Posted by cjohnso2 on October 23, 2003 at 12:04 AM
Untangling a Tale of a Tail
Category: 04 Blog: Alice in Wonderland | Chris Johnson
Chapter three contains a scene in which total confusion erupts from Alice’s misunderstanding of Mouse’s use of the word “tale.” This confusion, however, is not shared by the reader, because the narrator makes it quite obvious how each character is using the word. From the beginning of the dialogue, it...
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Posted by cjohnso2 on October 06, 2003 at 03:39 PM
Unforgiving Isabella
Category: 03 Blog: Wuthering Heights | Chris Johnson
Bronte uses Isabella’s letter to let the reader experience the story (and Heathcliff in particular) from the position of someone who cannot forgive the indiscretions of others - even though that someone is not entirely blameless for those indiscretions occurring in the first place! Forgiveness is a constant theme in...
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Posted by cjohnso2 on September 30, 2003 at 01:12 AM
Cathy Finally Returns
Category: 02 Blog: Wuthering Heights | Chris Johnson
Bronte uses Lockwood’s dream to show how the Catherine that Heathcliff loved was the one that disappeared after her introduction to Thrushcross Grange and the Lintons - the “child” Catherine whose home was Wuthering Heights. It’s almost only in her youngest form, the form from the dream, that Catherine spends...
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Posted by cjohnso2 on September 23, 2003 at 12:06 AM
Mirroring Quint
Category: 01 Blog: Turn of the Screw | Chris Johnson
Immediately after seeing Quint’s ghost through the dining room window, the Governess goes outside and stares into the house through the same window - being framed by it in exactly the same manner as Quint just had. This moment (along with Mrs. Grose’s show of fear upon viewing the...
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Posted by cjohnso2 on September 15, 2003 at 03:34 PM
Practice Sentences
Category: Chris Johnson
I don’t in the very least. You’ve seen him nowhere but on the tower? And on this spot just now....
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Posted by cjohnso2 on September 11, 2003 at 12:56 AM