Narration is a key device in
storytelling. The narrator is whom the reader predominantly converses with and
relies upon for information. Whether the narrator is in fact reliable can only
add to the intrigue!
Through Narration a story unfolds
in a certain way, depending on the specific style of narrative. If the narrator
is a young child, for example, their telling of the story is limited by their
age and inexperience. The motivations of the other characters are revealed
secondhand through this biased narrator. Omniscient narration is the opposite.
This is the all-knowing narrator, written in the third person – he, she, they.
We’re able to understand, through this, every character’s thoughts and feelings
as well as any necessary background information. For example, Anna Karenina is told to us through
omniscient narration. The story unfolds from Anna's perspective, and equally other
perspectives are expressed. Second person narration is used more often in
poetry than prose, can be an effective way to engage the reader as it creates a
more intimate, personal interaction with the reader by involving them using
pronouns – you, your.
Our narrator could also be one
with our protagonist, in other words, first person – I, me, mine; as exampled
above with the ‘young child’. This style opens our reading experience to the
possibility of having an unreliable narrator. An unreliable narrator is a
character that we cannot trust, though we must follow their version of events
in order to understand anything further. A
Clockwork Orange and Fight Club present
us with an unreliable narrator, heightening the drama and intriguing us by encouraging
tension, thus creating conflict and suspense; marking a successful narrative. According
to David Lodge, the purpose of an unreliable narrator is “to reveal in an
interesting way the gap between appearance and reality, and to show how human
beings distort or conceal the latter”.
A successful narrative prompts
questioning which in turn provides suspense. Suspense keeps the reader engaged
because of the room given to question. A change in the behavior of a character,
or a change of events is a way to encourage narrative tension; this is a result
of suspense. Suspense is mainly provided through conflict, for example, imagine
a story beginning at funeral where our protagonist is indifferent to the
deceased and the other characters are shocked and appalled by this, we may
immediately wonder ‘what’s wrong?’ and ‘why is [John] so unaffected?’ Intrigue
induced by conflict equals suspense. Win. The graph below depicts the order and
affect of causality through intrigue, suspense and tension:
The narrative is the progression
of the story itself, as clarified by Robert Graham in Creative Writing, narrative
is “A sequence of causally related events.” This example is given: “The king
died and then the queen died”, this is not a narrative as there has been no
cause for affect (causality). However, “the king died and then the queen died of
a broken heart” are two related events as one thing has happened due to the
other. The significance of causality is that with it, we are able to understand
characters through their responses to other characters or events, like the
funeral instance.
To create a successful narrative
is to create change, by means of intrigue,
suspense and tension. Through the plot of the story, we can recognize these
three things in our character’s feelings, thoughts and actions. Referring to
causality, “A whole is that which has beginning, middle, and end.” (Aristotle) A
beginning is that which is causeless, the middle then is caused by the
beginning and also causes the end, which is the finally caused but causes
nothing further.
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