English 104 - Introduction to Narrative
Sophie Wiss
The Mother-Stranger
Category: 2 Essay: Carroll, Twain, Faulkner, Sebold | Sophie Wiss
In the novels As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, we are allowed to see beyond how children or husbands think of motherhood and finally get a glimpse of motherhood through the eyes of the mother. Never claiming that motherhood is an easy...
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Posted by swiss on December 09, 2003 at 09:42 AM
Narrative Circles That Parallel an Internal Struggle
Category: 10 Blog: The Lovely Bones | Sophie Wiss
As an omniscient narrator, Susie has the ability to draw our attention back and forth between heaven and earth, past and present, as she chooses. While her father lies in a hospital bed, Susie circles back and forth through time, exemplifying her mother’s internal struggle as she faces a...
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Posted by swiss on December 03, 2003 at 03:39 PM
Empty Sounds for Sin and Salvation
Category: 09 Blog: As I Lay Dying | Sophie Wiss
More interesting than the involvement of Addie’s monologue after she has died, the placement of Addie’s monologue between the two most hypocritical monologues in the novel augments the important contrast between different understandings of sin and salvation and tempts the narratee to grant the latter to Addie—and Addie only....
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Posted by swiss on November 24, 2003 at 02:33 PM
A Thinking Man
Category: 08 Blog: As I Lay Dying | Sophie Wiss
One of the most prominent narrators in As I Lay Dying, Darl seems to invoke opposite feelings from people. In Tull’s description of crossing the fallen bridge, he explains to Cora “how Darl jumped out of the wagon and left Cash sitting there trying to save it,” to which Cora...
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Posted by swiss on November 18, 2003 at 12:04 AM
High Pedastals and Big Plans
Category: 07 Blog: Huckleberry Finn | Sophie Wiss
Huck’s response to Tom’s disclosure that the widow freed Jim in her will reinforces what we already suspected of Huck: he is under Tom’s spell. From early on in the narrative, Huck is able to see through Tom’s lies, pointing out that “all that stuff [about Arabs and elephants] was...
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Posted by swiss on November 09, 2003 at 11:22 PM
Chained to the Places He Never Wished to Stay
Category: 06 Blog: Huckleberry Finn | Sophie Wiss
Huck’s tolerance of the king and duke’s antics is not a choice made in response to what he wants, but in response to what he fears most. While he shows that he has a sense of duty to help those that cannot help themselves, it is not his conscience that...
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Posted by swiss on November 03, 2003 at 07:24 PM
Understanding Death; Appreciating Life
Category: 05 Blog: Huckleberry Finn | Sophie Wiss
In Huck’s world, death seems to be on the forefront of his every thought. It appears as though he is unable to avoid death no matter what distance he travels, and as he experiences the mortality of more and more people in his life, he only begins to understand the...
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Posted by swiss on October 27, 2003 at 07:49 PM
Enhancing Accounts Through Layers of Frames
Category: 11 Essay: James and Bronte | Sophie Wiss
Frames are employed in literature for various purposes. They have the ability to enhance not only the structure of the narrative, but the plot of a story as well. They can serve to develop a specific point of view as well as augment a specific character’s role in the account....
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Posted by swiss on October 22, 2003 at 11:39 PM
Inability to See Eye to Eye
Category: 04 Blog: Alice in Wonderland | Sophie Wiss
As Alice embarks on her journey through Wonderland, she repeatedly finds herself becoming frustrated by her inability to communicate with Wonderland’s inhabitants. Though she is able to adapt to the strange occurrences she finds there, she is unable to become accustomed to such frustrated communication. The narrator notes that “she...
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Posted by swiss on October 06, 2003 at 08:12 PM
Heaven in the Heath on top of Wuthering Heights
Category: 03 Blog: Wuthering Heights | Sophie Wiss
By involving a second generation in the story of Wuthering Heights, the intense relationships of the first are relived by parallel characters, but the center of the love triangle is able to carry out her true desires. Catherine having died without speaking of either Edgar or Heathcliff, we are...
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Posted by swiss on September 29, 2003 at 11:51 PM
Contributing to the Disturbance
Category: 02 Blog: Wuthering Heights | Sophie Wiss
In the novel Wuthering Heights we are forced to believe that our narrator, Nelly, is telling the whole story to Mr. Lockwood as it happened, since we have nothing else to go by. However, in her own words, Nelly confesses to certain information she discloses to Linton and Heathcliff...
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Posted by swiss on September 22, 2003 at 09:20 PM
Under The Spell
Category: 01 Blog: Turn of the Screw | Sophie Wiss
One of the first things that the governess notes being aware of at Bly is the ability to see herself framed in one of the many full-length mirrors throughout the house. The governess is, for the first time in her life, aware of her physical self. And as she records...
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Posted by swiss on September 15, 2003 at 10:26 PM
practice
Category: Sophie Wiss
“You don’t think I get stereotyped? It’s like there goes Oz. He’s just some kick ass lacrosse player. You know I also play football by the way. But that’s not who I am.” -American Pie...
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Posted by swiss on September 11, 2003 at 12:10 AM