Digging Beneath the Obvious: Figurative Language

Digging Beneath the Obvious: Figurative Language

In This Chapter

• The difference between symbolism and metaphor

• How to spot hyperbole

• Religion, myth, and superstition as literary devices

• How authors incorporate wit and humor into their work

Like every other part of a carefully constructed novel, an author is always searching to tell the story in unique ways. To help you find the meaning, the author will incorporate clues in the form of symbols and metaphors. Sometimes these clues are bold and obvious, whereas other times they meander through the story like secret passageways left open for readers to discover on their journey.

In this chapter, you learn what you could be getting from a novel beyond the obvious. It's not just the characters, the plot, the themes, and the numerous narrative techniques that make the work come together, but the symbols, metaphors, and myths incorporated in the text that make the story complete and fulfilling.

Getting Definitive

We touched on figurative language in Chapter 7, but it's time to take a closer look. Somehow over the years the meanings of the words symbolism and metaphor have crossed paths, and one term is often mistakenly used for the other. So before you read any farther, the first thing you need to do is establish the definition of the two words so that you can spot them within the text of a piece of fiction. (Allegories—symbols that reveal a larger metaphor—were covered in Chapter 7.)

Here are the definitions of the two words according to the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Second Edition):

Symbol. An object or name that stands for something else, especially a material thing that stands for something that is not material. For example, the symbol of America is an eagle.

Metaphor. The comparison of one thing to another without using the words like or as. For example, "The road was a ribbon of moonlight."

Literature and Symbols: Unveiling Mysteries

Why is it important to understand symbols? Symbolism, as we have discussed in previous chapters, is frequently used in fiction as a creative literary device to give the story more depth and complexity, which of course means that there will be more for you to understand.

Sometimes symbols are blatant—they will stand out and scream their meanings— but the more interesting symbols are the ones you have to dig for. Some authors are heavy on the use of symbolism, whereas others tend to be more subtle. For example, it's fair to say that one of the most blatant symbols in The Scarlet Letter is the letter A. As you remember, in Chapter 6 we looked at the many different ways that simple letter took on very specific symbolic meanings in that novel.

Because some symbols have become so much a part of our everyday lives, many authors try to keep their ideas and writing fresh by creating unique symbols and using  them to tell stories in new ways.

For example, Amy recently read the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, which builds itself up primarily by heavy use of symbolism and metaphor to make the story complete and fulfilling. The story is about a young girl's search for the truth about her mother's life. Lily Owens's mother dies tragically when Lily is a child, and she is left to be raised by her brutish father and a strong-willed African American nanny. In Lily's search for understanding of who her mother really was, she encounters several other symbolic mothers along the way.

A picture of a black Madonna leads Lily to the home of her mother's own nanny, named August, who lives with her two sisters, May and June—a household of women nurturing women. August, the oldest of the three, is a spiritual and wise woman who uses the image of the black Madonna on the label of her jars of homemade honey.

In the hive, there is the Queen Bee, of course, the mother of the hive without whom all the bees would be lost. August, her sisters, and their female friends worship the Madonna (the ultimate Christian symbol of motherhood) by using their own physical relic of a black Madonna in their living room services.

The symbolic breakdown would be as follows:

Lily uses a symbol representing the Virgin Mary to find her own mother. A mother (the Madonna image) leads Lily to another mother (August). August cares for yet another mother (the Queen Bee) and all of her offspring. The Queen Bee and the black Madonna are two of the most significant symbols in this book, and they are used deliberately by the author to help you understand what the book is about. It is not only Lily's story, but a story that calls out to everyone who seeks love, nurturing, and unconditional acceptance. In the big picture, the global meaning is that we all need to be nurtured. The concept of "mother" is the very

essence of ultimate nurturing, but we can also find that nurturing in the most unlikely places, whether it is in the house of three unwed beekeeping sisters or within the hive itself.

From the Serious to the Ridiculous

Authors have so much fun with names in their works of fiction on many different levels. Think about all the great names in literature—there are so many! Remember Ahab and Ishmael in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick? In Chapter 7, we discussed how their names have particular symbolic meaning to the story. We also discussed why Melville chose those names.

Think of the character Huckleberry Finn for a minute. The name conjures images of nature but perhaps in a more playful way. A huckleberry is a wild berry that grows in mountain regions, and a fin is the part of a fish's body that allows it to move. So immediately, through his name as a symbolic reference, we have a sense of Huckleberry Finn as being something good, natural, and free.

Charles Dickens consistently used names to represent character type—in fact, it is one of his many claims to fame. Some of the names of Dickens characters are so familiar to us now (does the name

Ebenezer Scrooge ring a bell?) that they have taken on a life of their own in the English language, and we often use them as symbolic references. We might call a stingy person "a Scrooge," for example.

Metaphorically Speaking

Using The Secret Life of Bees as an example again, although the bees and the Black Madonna are symbols, what they represent in conjunction with the story is a metaphor. In other words, when you put all the symbols together and connect them to the story, they become pieces of the overall concept.

The concept of the beehive and its beekeepers is metaphorical in relation to the theme of the story. Although there is order and nurturing within the hive, in the same breath there is also fragility. This is

a metaphor for what we experience as human beings. In the story, the narrator explains what happens to the hive if the Queen Bee disappears—the workers would be lost. Likewise in life, if we are not nurtured we will suffer a sense of tremendous loss and grief..

So how on earth did the author put together all these ideas in the first place? The answer is simple: by living, observing, and thinking creatively. These are the qualities that make the author an artist.

Hyperbole? Stop Exaggerating!

Using hyperbole is another way both poets and prose writers sometimes express an emotion. Hyperbole is an exaggerated expression used to show the depth and strength of an emotion. We use hyperbole in our everyday language, certainly more than we would ever use metaphors or similes. For example, how many times have you heard someone say, "I'd give my right arm for a hamburger" or "I'm so hungry I could eat

a horse"? This use of language to demonstrate the strength of emotion is called hyperbole.

Some believe that hyperbole is just melodrama and sounds a little ridiculous and clichéd at times. Although this may seem true if the device is overused (as it tends to be in some gothic and romantic literature), when used in moderation hyperbole can actually be very amusing and quite profound.

Hyperbole Then

Many older pieces of poetry and prose tend to be rich in hyperbole. The romantic writers loved to use hyperbole because it allowed them to break away from the conventions of past generations of writing. They could express passionate emotion in their writing that might not have been so well received in previous literary eras.

Gothic horror in the romantic literary era is most recognizable in the use of hyperbole for effect:

The murderer discovered! Good God! How can that be? Who could attempt to pursue him? It is impossible; one might as well try to overtake the winds, or confine a mountain-stream with a straw.

—Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and William and Dorothy Wordsworth are some of the most well-known writers of hyperbolic text in the history of the English language.

Hyperbole Now

Human beings cannot resist the temptation for melodrama. Although hyperbolic text is not nearly the fashion now as it might have been 200 years ago, it's still commonly used by modern-day authors.

Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Mârquez's writing hyperbole, as are many works by

Spanish-speaking authors. In fact, hyperbole is so commonly used in the writing of Latin authors that it falls into its own literary genre known as "magical realism."

When Marquez writes in One Hundred Years of Solitude "... it rained for four years, eleven months, and two days ..." what does he mean? Did it really rain all that time? No. It's an exaggerated and humorous tone that tells us that it had rained very heavily. It is highly unlikely that any place would ever get that kind of consistent rainfall, but Marquez is trying to describe the devastation to an area as a result of a storm.

Let's look at some samples of hyperbole from both old and new works of literary prose, with some explanation of what the author is trying to do.

Here we get a sense of the newness of the place through exaggeration and humor: The world was so recent that many things lacked names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point.

—Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Whereas here we just get a wonderful sense of Mark Twain's consistent and beloved caustic wit through narrative voice:

There did not seem to be brains enough in the entire nursery, so to speak, to bait a fishhook with.

—Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court

(Ahh, Twain and his humor ... what would we do without them?)

Hyperbole is often used to describe someone's physical features:

The skin on her face was as thin and drawn as tight as the skin of an onion and her eyes were gray and sharp like the points of two icepicks.

—Flannery O'Connor, Parker Is Back

As you continue your reading journey, try to pay attention to hyperbole, especially in modern works of literature. We seem to be in a current literary trend of finding great meanings in understatement, so when you find exaggeration in a newly released novel, ask yourself why it's there; it may lead you to a greater understanding of the story.

References to Religion and Myth

With every page you turn in various works of fiction, you will find references to myth and religion. And if you don't find these references, you will often find their antithesis—meaning a denial of these religious or mythical references.

In Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, Hardy sets the scene of a passionate, idyllic, and even tragic pastoral countryside where nature is representative of life with all its good and bad. In the midst of this rural, almost pagan setting, Hardy introduces Bathsheba Everdene, who shakes up everyone's world with her strength, independence, and beauty. It's interesting to note that here; too, you will find symbolic names. The characters who are part of the pastoral setting have names such as Oak and Boldwood, which are strongly connected to nature by bringing to mind the image of trees; whereas Bathsheba is a biblical name taken from the Old Testament.

Both her name and her very presence as an outsider automatically create a contrast between religion and culture.

If you decide to read Far from the Madding Crowd, keep your eyes open for another surprise. An outsider by the name of Sergeant Troy comes into the picture. What do you know about the word Troy? It's associated with myth. Your next step would be to research the story of Troy, which would lead you to the story of the Trojan horse, a decoy that led to murder and mayhem. When you understand the reference, you'll understand the character and you may even get a sense of foreshadowing.

So in one novel, Hardy uses both religion and myth to move the story along. It's a device that is frequendy used in fiction, so pay attention to the signposts as you read—names, settings, symbols, and metaphors will soon jump off the page at you if your mind is curious enough to find them.

Superstition as Metaphor

Superstition is a term used to describe a belief that is not based on reason but more on magical thinking. Sometimes a superstition is faith-based or has simply arisen from the beliefs of a particular culture or society, meaning it has folkloric origins. Some people say that superstition comes from ignorance or fear, whereas others say it stems from an unenlightened religious mindset. In actuality superstition can be any or all of these things.

So how do authors incorporate elements of superstition in their writing, and how is it different from religious metaphors? For a good example, let's revisit Huckleberry Finn. After all, Huck was one of the most superstitious characters in literary history.

Hairballs and Snakeskins

Superstition is a powerful force that drives Mark Twain's writing in Huckleberry Finn. Both Jim and Huck have their own sets of superstitions that stem from their own cultures and life rituals. Although Huck initially writes off Jim's superstitions as ridiculous, he eventually comes to see the relevance and wisdom in what Jim says.

And although you, as the reader, may not relate to these superstitions, what Twain is doing is showing the breakdown of differences between the two characters. The more they understand about each other, the more they respect each other.

Here are just a few examples of superstitions referenced in Huckleberry Finn:

• A hairball can tell the future.

• A loaf of bread can point out the whereabouts of a dead body.

• Touching a snakeskin with your bare hands will give you the worst kind of luck.

There are countless others. It's a wonder these two don't scare themselves to death

with all of their superstitions!

Nature, Superstition, and Metaphor

Nature is used as symbol and metaphor most frequently for Huck's state of mind. For example, when Huck feels lonesome and wishes he were dead, his mood is captured with superstition references:

The stars were shining, and the leaves rustled in the woods about somebody that was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was going to die; and the wind was trying to whisper something to me, and I couldn't make out what it was, and so it made the cold shivers run over me.

The stars and the leaves and the whippoorwill and the wind and all they represent superstitiously to Huck seem to extend his mood of deep sadness and dread.

Read on:

I got so downhearted and scared I did wish I had some company. Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder, and I flipped it off and it lit in the candle; and before I could budge it was all shriveled up. I didn't need anybody to tell me that that was an awful bad sign and could fetch me some bad luck, so I was scared and most shook the clothes off of me. I got up and turned around in my tracks three times and crossed my breast every time; and I tied up a little lock of my hair with a thread to keep witches away.

All of these references from Huckleberry Finn demonstrate the use of extended metaphors using nature and superstition to symbolize Huck's various emotional states. By using superstition as Huck's and Jim's belief systems, Twain further reminded readers that these two people are almost untouched by "civilization," education, and religion. This makes them appear to be as pure as the nature around them, which makes their transitions in the novel all the more poignant to the reader.

The Art of Wit and Humor

Mark Twain is famous for his sense of humor as evidenced in his fiction and essays. Twain loved to take the seemingly normal and conventional world and turn it on its head to show the reader just how ridiculous we can be. In doing this, he helps us laugh at ourselves.

Mark Twain posts a notice at the very beginning of Huckleberry Finn warning his readers that if they take any of the story seriously, they will be punished. In writing this "notice" to the reader, he is really asking his readers to find the humor before they get all riled up over any presumed messages.

Of course, Twain wants you to see the seriousness of the subject matter, really, but what he asks the reader to do is to see the humor first. In fact, this is another way that Twain breaks conventional literary traditions. He is not asking you to look beneath the surface by using metaphor and symbolism; rather, he wants you to find your way to the top by seeing the humor in his writing first, because then and only then will the hidden meanings be clear. He would rather the truth as he sees it be revealed to the reader by playing on the reader's own human qualities and sensibilities, one being, of course, a sense of humor.

Here is Twain's "notice" to the reader:

Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.

By Order of the Author

The Joy of Discovery

There is no end to what authors can do to reach their readers, and there is nothing more pleasurable for a reader than to spot the hidden treasure that lies within the text. If you are the kind of reader you want to be, you will be able to find the name, the symbol, the metaphor that opens doors wide for further understanding. When that happens, you will experience a joy in reading fiction that you may never have expected. It's like being the archaeologist who finds the skull of a previously unknown dinosaur. You will relish your discoveries and use them to forge ahead to further understanding about yourself and the world around you.

The Least You Need to Know

• Symbolism and metaphor are two different comparative devices.

• Hyperbole is exaggeration used to express strong emotions.

• Superstition, myth, and religion are commonly used as metaphors in fiction.

• Humor is a clever device used to help readers see deeper meanings in literature.

Novel Ways to Pull the Reader In: Critical Reading

Novel Ways to Pull the Reader In

In This Page

 Who's telling the story? 

What dialogue really tells the reader

Using style, tone, and tense to shift meaning and mood

Using new characters to recycle old themes

The basic structure of plot

What does an author do to make his or her work memorable? Part of it is the story itself, but even more important is the way the story is told. Why does the author choose a character in the novel to tell the story versus telling it himself, for example? What about dialogue, plot, and tone? Do these things simply fall into place, or are each of them carefully constructed by the writer?

To read a novel, it's important to understand how it is put together. In this chapter, you learn why the author makes certain choices about the way he or she will tell the story, and how being able to identify those choices will make the story clearer for you.

Find the Point of View

When you tell someone a story, it's always told from your point of view. You were there; you witnessed or were directly involved in the action—the only way to tell the story is the way you remember it happening. You can try telling a story from someone else's point of view, but you can only say what you think and feel and not what the other person is thinking and feeling. One of the first things a fiction writer must do, after figuring out the plot and characters, is to figure out who will tell the story. The narrator is the heart of the story, without which the text would not hold together and the tale would not hold authority.

The author has a few choices with regard to who will tell the story. Will it be a character within the story? Will it be an objective observer to the action? Or will it be an active participant in the action? Sometimes the story is told by someone who is not involved in the story at all, but who seems to know about everyone and everything happening in the book. (This is called the omniscient narrator.) When you read a novel, the narrator will either be so obvious that he screams off the page at you or will be so subtle that you barely notice who is telling the story. None of this is an accident. Writers make very conscious decisions about how they want their stories to be told, and a great deal of consideration is always given to narrative voice and point of view.

There are a number of different narrative voices an author can use, and the final choice will be for both stylistic and artistic purposes, which we discuss further after you have a handle on some specific terminology. Narrative voices are referred to as first, second, and third person.

Here's a summary of some commonly used narrative techniques in fiction:

First person narrator. The narrator is a character in the story and tells the story from his or her point of view. He or she is an observer of events with a subjective point of view. Writing in the first person limits the narrator's ability to be objective and therefore limits his or her reliability in the telling of the story.

First person observer (or first person reporter). Again, the story is told from the narrator's point of view, most likely by a character in the story, but as more of an observer than a participant in the action.

Second person: Second person is most commonly found in letter format and when a narrator switches gears to address the reader. Second person allows the narrator to address the reader by using "you." Authors do not usually feel the need to write in the second person. It is actually a difficult voice to use and is not always executed effectively.

Third person. The third person narrator is not necessarily a character in the piece of writing. Writing in the third person allows the author to have an objective party telling the story.

Third person reporter. Writing with this voice allows the narrator to be close to one character, telling the story through that person's eyes. The third person reporter has a limited point of view, but allows the reader to identify with one character throughout the story.

• Third person omniscient. This might be the favorite voice of any fiction writer. It allows the narrator to be anywhere at any time. The author can use the omniscient narrator to tell you what anyone is thinking. It gives the author godlike powers to tell the story from any character's point of view.

Although it's the fiction writer's job to establish the narrator and to be consistent with the narrative voice in the telling of the story, it's your job as the reader to try to understand what the writer intends to say to you through the use of a particular narrator. Often the best way to figure this out is to identify the point of view and to consider the reliability of the narrator.

Exceptions to the Rules

There are very rare exceptions when a first person narrator can be omniscient, but one good example is in a recently published novel called The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. It is about a young girl who is murdered and watches her family lead their lives from her bird's-eye view in heaven. Because she is in heaven, she has the ability to be omniscient—so she is able to see, hear, and know things that she normally wouldn't be able to if she were alive on Earth.

Young Suzie Salmon, in that case, can be considered Sebold's first person omniscient narrator: Hours before I died, my mother hung on the refrigerator a picture that Buckley had drawn. In the drawing a thick blue line separated air and ground. In the days that followed I watched my family walk back and forth past the drawing and I became convinced that that thick blue line was a real place—an

In between, where heaven's horizon met Earth's, (pg. 34)

Another good example of this type of first person omniscience was used in the recent Jeffrey Eugenides novel called Middlesex. The narrator tells the story of the lives of his parents and grandparents as he awaits his own birth, so his narrator is able to see, hear, and know all:

Meanwhile, in the greenroom to the world, I waited. Not even a gleam in my father's eye yet (he was staring gloomily at the thermometer case in his lap). Now my mother gets up from the so-called love seat. She heads for the stairway, holding a hand to her forehead, and the likelihood of my ever coming to be seems more and more remote, (pg. 11) This was a clever technique for the author to use because it allowed him to tell the story from the main character's point of view in first person while giving the narrator reliability by putting him in a position of omniscience. In other words, the back story can be told with credibility by the main character in the story.

Point of View and Dialogue

Another way an author can sneak in more information about characters when the book is written in third person is through the use of dialogue. This proves especially helpful when writing in third person limited, where the narrator is particularly close to one character. If the narrator has a limited scope in ability to tell the story from different character perspectives, dialogue is a good way to alert the reader about what is going on in a character's mind, allowing you to get a more complete story.

The following exchange comes from Ursula Hegi's Stones from the River (which uses a third person limited narrator) and takes place between the protagonist, Trudi Montag, and her antagonist, Max:

"Look at me," he said. "I haven't seen her in years."

"You're divorced then?"

"Not legally. But I will be, if we ever agree enough to sign papers."

Her body felt stiff as if her heart had stopped beating.

"Come here." He opened his arms to her. "Please, Trudi?"

She shook her head. One of his hairs lay on her arm, dark and curled. She couldn't bear to touch it and blew it away.

"Ask whatever you need to know."

"You wouldn't have told me ..."

"I promise you the truth."

"You would never have told me ..."

"I don't think of her, Trudi. I don't think of myself as married."

"But you are."

"People don't always tell each other everything right away."

Her face felt hot. "What do you mean?"

"Wouldn't you agree that it's better to wait to reveal some things until you know the other person's ready to hear them?"

"I-I'm not sure."

"Well, you wanted to know if I had faults."

"And you do."

"You said I was too perfect."

"I would have settled for something less dramatic than a wife." (pg. 394—395)

Through the dialogue, with very few narrator interjections, we see the struggle between the two characters. The narrator doesn't tell us this directly; the characters do, as though they have taken on the role of the narrator. By not interceding, the narrator allows us to draw our own conclusions about who these characters are.

For example, from this dialogue we know that Trudi is hurt as her lover, Max, explains his situation to her. Although he is loving and honest, it doesn't stop Trudi from feeling betrayed and angry. That's a lot of information to receive based on the words of two characters. What the author is doing here is showing us, rather than telling us, what is going on between these two people.

Is the Narrator a Character?

If the narrator is a character in the novel, the author will have a good sense of the tone and mood of the character, and that makes it a little easier to determine how the author wants the character to convey the story to you.

But what happens when the narrator is not a character in the story? Where is this mysterious voice coming from? The logical answer to that is that it is the author telling the story, but this is not always the

case. Sometimes the author and the narrator are one in the same, but most often authors choose a different voice from their own because they have a plan in mind for the way they want the story to be told.

When the story is told in the third person, and not by a character within the story, the narrator is invisible but will still have a mood and a tone and a particular way of telling the story.

Narrator Reliability

The reader doesn't have to agree with the narrator, but the reader needs to believe that the narrator is telling the real story from whatever perspective the story is being told. If the author is not consistent with the mood and tone of the narrator, the narrator will not be convincing and the reader may not stay with the book.

Sometimes, however, the author wants to use an unreliable narrator. For example, if the character is a child, you will hear the story from the child's point of view. Although children are certainly as able as anyone else in telling stories, you may not be getting as close to the truth as possible because you will have a more innocent and inexperienced voice telling you what is going on.

Choosing an unreliable narrator, such as a child, is a deliberate author technique. The writer wants the reader to have to dig a little further to find the truth, and yet the writer still wants us to hear the story from the perspective of this particular observer. But because we have to read so much more into the narrator's story, we are dealing with what is called an "unreliable narrator" and have to be sure we don't

take the story at face value or we will completely miss the author's intention.

One of Amy's favorite unreliable narrators is Daisy Fay Harper from Fannie Flagg's book Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man. Daisy Fay is 11 years old and has some interesting perspectives on life as she sees it—or on the stories she's been told: When I was being born, I kicked Momma so hard that now she can't have any

more children. I don't remember kicking her at all. It wasn't my fault I was so fat and if Daddy hadn't choked the doctor and made him nervous, I would have been born better, (pg. 14) Although the readers will never know where Daisy got this story from unless she tells us, it is likely she heard it from one of her parents and has put her own spin on it. So not only are we hearing the story from a child narrator, we are hearing her own retold version of it, which makes it even more unreliable.

So why did the author do this? Well, Daisy is a very creative and amusing child. What we learn from this short paragraph is that Daisy is confident and strong-minded in her ability not to blame herself for her mother's hard delivery; we also learn that her mother can't have any more children. It is unlikely that that is because Daisy kicked her, even though that's what Daisy is presenting to us as fact. We may never know

the truth, but we are getting information from her, and she does tell us the story with humor, which makes the reading experience a lot of fan.

Another type of unreliable narrator would be someone who is not mentally stable, as in Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita. The story is about a grownup man's obsession with an adolescent girl told from his point of view. Humbert Humbert is clearly delusional and portrays the girl, Delores (or Lolita), as a temptress.

If we were to take the story at face value solely based on what Humbert tells us, we would believe that Lolita is largely to blame for her plight. But as logical and objective readers, we know that we are reading the story from the point of view of a pedophile and Lolita is probably not the seductress Humbert would like us to believe she is. This is where it is the reader's responsibility to read between the lines.

Keep in mind that at the very beginning of Lolita, Humbert, as the narrator, tells the reader that he is not a normal man. He gives you definitions of his obsession and even compares himself to "normal" men. It is important not to lose sight of this as he moves into the actual story or you run the risk of taking his story as the truth instead of just his point of view.

Know Your Narrator

To read more deeply means making some kind of acquaintance with who the narrator is. You may have to get a few pages into the story before you understand what kind of narrator you are dealing with. From page one, you will know what point of view the story is being told from: first, second, or third. It may take a little more reading to know whether this is third person limited or third person omniscient, but after you've figured it out, you should keep it in mind as you read. Just remember: It may take you even more time to figure out whether the narrator is reliable—sometimes it isn't apparent until the end of the book.

Autobiographical Narration

In some cases, especially in the case of the autobiographical novel, it's helpful to compare

the author with his or her narrator. The more you know about the author, the easier it will be to understand the narrative voice.

The story of Edna Pontellier as told by Kate Chopin in The Awakening was based on Kate Chopin's true-life story. When we say "based on," we don't mean that the story is word for word the life of the author, but Chopin takes her own thoughts and feelings and uses them to bring her character to life. Chopin lived her life in pursuit of independence with the desire to validate her identity apart from being a mother and apart from the men who admired her. Chopin took these characteristics and made them a part of Edna's psyche in order to tell her story.

Chopin takes some daring and innovative risks in her writing. For example, she switches the narrative voice between third person limited and omniscient. She uses third person limited when she wants us to understand what is going on inside of Edna's mind. It's as though we are privy to the inner workings of the protagonist, almost as though the story were written in first person. When Chopin wants you to see Edna's external world she dips back into the omniscient narrative. This allows the reader to take a peek at what the action outside of Edna's mind is all about. This is important because if we stayed inside Edna's mind too long, we wouldn't be able to get a complete picture of her circumstances. Viewing the action through the omniscient voice allows the plot to move along while enabling the reader to stay with the story.

What we know of Edna Pontellier is that she is an independent woman, much like the author herself. Although Chopin invented Edna, she is really telling you her own story—thus making the novel autobiographical in nature but not necessarily true to life with respect to the details of Chopin's life.

When Chopin switches to an omniscient narrator, she relies upon an observer to tell you the story of Edna Pontellier. You know now that the story is autobiographical, so in choosing to tell us part of the story in third person omniscient, Chopin allows herself some distance from her own reality to tell us her self-inspired story in a fictionalized form. If the story is her own, or close to her own, why wouldn't she tell it in first person? Well, that was a personal choice for Chopin; if you think about it, however, it makes sense to tell it through the eyes of an observer.

To tell the story in first person would make it seem as though she were writing a memoir and she may not have been able to communicate the story to the reader quite so powerfully. By telling the story in third person, she gives it a more universal appeal. If she told the story in first person, the reader might see the story as only applying to the author and might not relate to it or understand it in the same way.

By taking her story outside of herself, she can observe it in a similar way as the reader—with some element of distance and objectivity.

Consider the Tense and Tone

An author can use many techniques to affect your reading experience. Sometimes these choices will surprise you, as when a writer fiddles around with narrator, tense, and tone. For example, in The Awakening, when Chopin relies on the omniscient narrator, and she uses the past tense and changes it only when she is emphasizing details.

Here is an example, in which she speaks about her husband:

Mr. Pontellier had prepared for bed, but he slipped on an extra garment. He opened a bottle of wine, of which he kept a small and select supply in a buffet of his own. He drank a glass of the wine and went out on the gallery and offered a glass to his wife. She did not wish any. He drew up the rocker, hoisted his slippered feet on the rail, and proceeded to smoke a cigar. He smoked two cigars; then went inside and drank another glass of wine. Mrs. Pontellier again declined to accept a glass when it was offered to her. Mr. Pontellier once more seated himself with elevated feet, and after a reasonable interval of time smoked some more cigars.

The omniscient narrator has set a scene almost in the same way a camera might pan the details of this man's moments in a film. And then, the narrator shifts the tone to a much more personal one in telling us about Edna: Edna began to feel like one who awakens gradually out of a dream, a delicious, grotesque, impossible dream, to feel again the realities pressing into her soul.

The physical need for sleep began to overtake her; the exuberance which had sustained and exalted her spirit left her helpless and yielding to the conditions which crowded her in.

First of all, notice that Edna is no longer referred to as Mrs. Pontellier in this second paragraph. By switching tenses and tone, the narrator seems to have drawn herself into Edna's mind, bringing us closer to her and further away from the world outside of herself. By using her first name and changing the tense, it's as though the narrator is standing side by side with Edna, allowing the reader to feel the closeness and giving you a sense that this story really is about Edna's inner world. The narrator has entered into Edna's mind and body and describes her feelings intimately and personally.

Do you notice how the change to the present tense gives us an immediate experience in connection to Edna's feelings and her state of mind?

This change of tense from the detached, distant, cameralike view to the intimate, deeply personal is done throughout the book and has a powerful dramatic effect on the story and therefore upon the reader. It might not be something you would have caught if you were unfamiliar with author techniques. Now that you know what to look for, it might be easier to spot and will allow you a more complete and fulfilling read of the book.

Choosing the Characters

Like the plot (which we discuss later in this chapter) and the selection of the narrator, the characters the author chooses to use in the story relation to the story have a place and meaning in. Each character is carefully selected and has a specific role in the story to make the plot reliable and complete.

Sometimes the character's place is easy to identify, whereas at other times you have to ask why the author feels such a character is necessary. It's not enough, for example, to throw in a character who is funny just to make the reader laugh. The character has some greater purpose. Ask yourself why the author feels you need this comic relief. Never take any character for granted. They're all there for a reason.

Old Themes, New Characters

In Chopin's The Awakening, the story follows an unconventional married woman who finds herself stifled in her conventional marriage and takes a lover. But it really isn't as simple as that tired old theme suggests. This book is about growing and changing through the experiences life offers. It's about wanting a sense of fulfillment in life. This has been a common literary theme concerning stories about men and women alike, and similar examples can be found in novels about class and race, as well.

So why do writers bother with tired old plots? Well, because they aren't yet worn out; otherwise authors would stop using them. These plots and characters are based on what human beings are still struggling with and will probably always struggle with. We can relate to them.

The art of repeating themes lies primarily in the characters used to depict the story and the plot that drives them in their actions. In other words, it doesn't matter whether the same theme is stated over and over again in book after book. It bears repeating as long as people continue to evolve and change and try to find solutions to age-old problems. What makes old themes recyclable are the characters we read about, who point to the larger society and culture that bred them, and to ourselves personally

Character and the Common Bond

Although it is true that characters in their various plots and settings can carry a common bond, what makes them unique is the way they tell the story. For example, Becky Sharp from William Thackeray's Vanity Fair and Scarlet O'Hara from Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind are similar characters living in completely different places and times.

Becky Sharp uses her femininity and conniving abilities to keep herself afloat amid the upper class. What use is it to be beautiful and poor? She wants attention and money, which for her means the good life and, ultimately, survival. She'll stop at nothing to get what she wants. Scarlet O'Hara is the same type of character with different motivations. Scarlet doesn't dream so much of wealth and the upper classes—she was born and bred in that world. Scarlet most wants love, a home, and attention. To her, these things define survival.

So what do these two character types tell us about their respective stories? What are the authors trying to say to us by using these characters? Well, that selfish manipulation doesn't always have the same outcome. Although Becky Sharp and Scarlet O'Hara are often compared as character types due to their abilities to get what they want through using femininity and manipulation tactics, their personalities and their needs are not the same, and the outcomes of their stories are completely different.

Scarlet winds up virtually unchanged and trying to figure out to weasel her way back to Rhett Butler. Becky, on the other hand, winds up with the desire to be a respected woman.

Characters following a common (and well-used) theme may not arrive at the same place at the end of their respective stories. As long as there are clever authors out there who are able to put new and unusual twists on a character "type," the reader will want to keep on reading.

Scarlet's story ends with the realization that the love she had sought was hers all along, but instead of winding up happy, she winds up losing the man she realizes she loves too late.

Building a House: Plot Structure

Every good piece of fiction will be comprised of a specific plot structure. This is a basic truth for novels, short stories, film, plays, television programs, and sometimes even in poetry (depending on the style of the poem). Although it might sound like a dull concept for every piece of fiction to have the same basic foundation, it is the very structure of the work that makes it understandable.

A common teaching method to help readers and writers understand the structure of fiction is to picture a piece of fiction as a house. That's right—four walls, a roof, rooms, closets—everything that makes a house a complete structure, although plans for that interior may vary greatly from book to book just as they do in real homes.

How does the concept of architecture apply to fiction writing? The house represents the entire structure—the whole story. Inside the house there are rooms, and each room is a plot point, meaning a particular action that takes place within the story.

The action of the story is the movement that takes place within the house, and, of course, the people moving within the house are the characters. Without these elements a house could never be a home—it would just be a skeleton with no life.

Between the Walls

In addition to having an overall structure, the story must follow a certain movement, which you can remember by thinking about the alphabet. Well, part of the alphabet anyway:

A - Action

B - Background

C - Conflict, crisis, climax (in that order)

D - Dénouement (resolution)

E - End (conclusion)

Action

Every story needs action to move the plot forward and lead the characters toward growth and transition. If there is no action, the story cannot go anywhere and we probably wouldn't be interested in reading it anyway.

Background

To fully understand the story and the motivations of the characters, we need to know do the things they do and feel the way they feel? It's no different than understanding your own life or the lives of other people. We really get to know the people in our lives when we know where they come from, what makes them tick, and what drives them.

From Conflict to Climax

The purpose of a piece of fiction is to show how the protagonist changes. This is best done when there is a conflict. How the conflict builds comes from the action in the story. A conflict leads to a crisis where the protagonist is usually faced with choices.

How that character deals with the crisis helps us understand the protagonist's psychological, moral, social, or even physical transformation. The climax of the story is the pinnacle of the crisis and the point at which the character transition occurs.

Dénouement or Resolution

As readers (and as people) we need resolution to a given conflict. In fiction, we need to know what the character makes of this transition. Is the character aware that there has been a change inside himself or herself? If so, what are these internal changes? Is the character at peace? Does he or she have any better understanding of himself or herself within the situation? Or does he or she have more work to do and have simply passed through the initial stages of change?

Conclusion

Although an author can easily end a book with the resolution, sometimes he or she will take it a step further with a conclusion. It really depends on what the author is trying to say. If the most important development in the story is the resolution of the conflict, the author may choose not to tell you what happens to the character next. By ending the story at the some background. Who are these characters, where do they come from, why do they at the point of resolution, the author is telling you that:

You don't need to know where the character goes from there; the important thing is how he or she got there.

Think of this in terms of the fairy tale that ends in "happily ever after." What does that mean, exactly?

The story is really about how the hero or heroine got to the "happily ever after" and not what the "happily ever after" actually refers to—which we assume to be comfort and family. All of these elements, if constructed well, should lead the reader to a sense of both satisfaction and loss—satisfaction with the resolution and loss that it is over. That's what makes fiction reading worthwhile.

Putting the Pieces Together

If you take the narrative voice, tone, mood, setting, plot, theme, point of view, and characterizations and put them together, they complete an intricate puzzle of meaning. If the craftsmanship is there, you will be in for a wonderful reading experience.

It's an art form and a skill for a writer to put all the bits and pieces together and have them make sense to a total stranger. You have no idea what the author was thinking when he or she set out to write the book, but by the time you close the book, if the author has done his or her job well and you are knowledgeable enough to see it, you will have completed a journey you may never forget. But now, not only will you be able to feel excited about it, you'll also be able to say why.

The Least You Need to Know

• Narrative voice is a deliberate storytelling device.

• The tense the author chooses to use (past or present) pulls us into the story or .backs us away from it.

• Dialogue is used to reveal character detail.

• Following a basic plot pattern is essential for fiction.

Reading Imaginative Literature: A guide to Critical Reading

Reading Imaginative

Literature

In This Chapter

-         Telling a story with meaning: parables, allegories, and fables

-         How the characters fit in

-         Exploring the themes

-         The importance of setting and imagery

When a writer sits down to work on a piece of fiction, he or she doesn't necessarily know what devices will be applied throughout the story. The devices tend to grow as the piece of writing develops.

In this chapter, you learn what it takes to write a piece of fiction so that you have a better understanding of how it needs to be read. It's not just about what the author wants you to take away from the book, but how the message is presented.

Creative Minds at Work

What do you think happens when an author sits down in front of a computer screen or with pen and paper in hand (the old-fashioned way) and decides to write a story? Well, it depends on the author, that's for sure, but they all have one objective in mind, which is to uncover a deeper truth about life that you can relate to.

Some writers will just think for hours before they ever put a single word on the page.

They develop characters in their minds; they hear them speak; they give them hair and eye color and physical gestures. Sometimes a writer will start with an outline— a rough idea of the story line (the plot) and who the players will be (character sketches). But not everyone is that organized. Sometimes a writer sits at a computer (or in front of that blank white sheet of paper) and starts to write anything and everything that comes to his or her mind. Or, if you're a writer like Amy's father (an author of historical novels), you might have put yourself to bed as a child every night with a story you made up about Native Americans and Jesuit priests. The story grows and grows until it has to be written, and what appears will often surprise everyone, especially the writer.

If a writer were to stop and think every few sentences about what writing techniques to use, the piece would probably never get written. Most writers concentrate first on getting the story on paper. While the writer thinks about the story on her way to a day job, or before falling asleep at night, thoughts about creative storytelling devices will certainly come to mind and will eventually be employed to move the story along, but at the outset all that matters is that the words make it to the page.

Allegory and Parables

To convey your feelings, ideas, beliefs, thoughts, and dreams to another human being is never easy. Some people are better communicators than others, but it is difficult to tell someone how you feel in such a way that they will feel it, too. That's the job of the fiction writer and the power of allegory. Some of the most notable allegorical storytelling can be found in the Bible. This book contains countless stories that have not only been the foundation of Christian belief, but have taught people meanings and feelings for centuries. For example, take a look at this passage:

“Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children”---(Matthew 14:13-21 NRSV)

What does it mean that Jesus Christ was able to feed thousands of people with just a little bit of food? To take the story literally (the surface story), it would be one of the many miracles performed by Jesus Christ in the Bible. When you take a closer look at the story and dig at the metaphor contained beneath the surface, you will most likely find several meanings, one of which is that every person has the power to nurture others with prayers and hope. In other words, the faith of one can influence  any.

For Jesus Christ to make himself understood to the people, he had to speak in parables; in other words, teach his truths by means of stories with embedded metaphors. There are many religions that use allegory and parables to help people understand deeper meanings. Examples include stories of Hindu gods and goddesses; stories about Buddha; and the ancient religions of gods and goddesses worshipped in Greece, Rome, Egypt, and more.

If religion were simply preached at you without giving you a story behind it, it might not be as easy to understand—or as interesting, for that matter. Theologians understand the power and conviction of the allegory as much as fiction writers do.

The more metaphorical the story the more likely it is that the reader will absorb the deeper meaning. Many storytellers try to communicate an idea or belief to you by disguising the theme in the form of a story. By doing so the writer is asking you—the reader—to figure it out for yourself, because all answers that bear any meaning for you must ultimately come from you.

A Whale of a Story

Moby-Dick, by American author Herman Melville (1819-1891), is one of the best examples of allegorical American fiction because of its depth and subject matter. On the surface Moby-Dick is a story of the whaling industry and one sailor's search to destroy an infamous sea legend, a whale named Moby Dick. However, look a little deeper and you will find much more than a simple fish story. In Moby-Dick, Melville takes on the age-old philosophical theme of good versus evil.

Is Melville right in his hypothesis? Do we all have to confront the darkest sides of ourselves at some point in our lives? That's what you need to decide for yourself when you read the book. What truths, if any, does the author touch inside of you? After you have uncovered the mystery that Melville has set before you, you will reach an understanding with the book and with the author. Uncover the metaphors and see what you can relate to. What are your feelings about good and evil? Are they innate qualities or are they acquired through living? How does the struggle of good versus evil affect your life? What does Melville say about the strength of the individual through Ishmael's tale of the captain and that white sperm whale?

What's in a Name?

Often characters represent something allegorical within the story. Sometimes they are represented as subtle symbols, whereas at other times they just scream out at you either by name or by action. In other words, sometimes you have to search for the symbolism, and other times the author makes it more obvious to the reader. Let's return to Moby-Dick for an example of characters used as symbols—and there is nothing subtle about them!

Melville approaches the issue of good and evil in a symbolic way by relying on several biblical references, the most obvious of which are the names Ahab and Ishmael. These are carefully chosen names that point us in the direction of further inquiry. Why would Melville use these names instead of, say, Will and Sam?

From its origins in the Bible, the name Ishmael has become synonymous with the orphaned outcast of society. In the Bible, Ishmael was the son of Abraham and a slave girl. Abraham's wife, Sarah, thought she could not have children despite the fact that she was promised a child by God. When Sarah finally did have her promised child, Isaac, Ishmael and his mother were cast onto the streets.

Ishmael in Moby-Dick is new to the world of whaling and he is the eyes and ears of the reader. He is the outsider on the ship and therefore can see the events aboard the whaling ship with a fresh eye. As he sees it, we see it. As the reader, you are as new to this world as Ishmael himself. In the Bible, Ahab is the king of Israel known for being evil, vengeful, and bloodthirsty on the one hand, although other references refer to him as one of the greatest kings that ever ruled Israel! So which is it? Was he great or was he evil? Or ... was he both?

Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick is not unlike King Ahab in his lust for revenge. Captain Ahab searches the globe for the white sperm whale that had previously maimed him. Moby Dick is known by all sailors for his ferocity—he has destroyed everyone who has attempted to destroy him. Yet Ahab will not be deterred and is willing to risk his ship and the lives of his crewmen in an effort to quell his anger and hatred.

Fables

Some of the most memorable nonbiblical allegories can be found in the form of the fable. A fable differs from a parable in that a fable usually includes some unbelievable action or some strange characterizations such as talking animals. Fables hide a metaphor for one of life's many lessons. One of the most well known of Aesop's fables is The Fox and the Grapes, a story about a fox (of course) who stumbles across a grapevine. He's thirsty and would really like a nice fresh juicy grape or two. But the ripest of the bunch is on a higher limb and he can't reach it no matter how hard he tries. Finally he gives up and haughtily says to him, "I bet they were sour anyway." Have you ever heard someone say "it sounds like a case of sour grapes"? That's where that expression comes from, as do many of our English expressions.

Every fable has a meaning that can usually be summed up in one easy sentence. In the case of this story, the underlying meaning is "It is easy to despise what you cannot get."

So That's What It Means!

If you read into a story and find the hidden meanings, they are your own discovery and will hold a more valuable and deeper meaning for you. Even if you don't personalize the message, you will see and understand it, and that means everything when you are trying to become a critical reader.

As you know from living your life every day, the most valuable lessons learned are the ones you learn on your own. Sometimes you need a little nudge, but until you figure it out for yourself you will never fully understand the messages that are handed to you.

Fiction is often allegorical. It is the good fiction writer's task to give the work a deeper, more global meaning than what is happening in the surface story. That, and the ability to allow the reader to find the hidden meaning, is what make writing fiction an art. On the other hand, some fiction writers write purely for entertainment. What you take from the book and how you relate to it may not go any deeper than the surface—and it's not supposed to. There may be smaller life lessons in the story, but the writer is not necessarily intending to do anything but allow you to relax and absorb.

Tools of the Trade

Like a carpenter needs tools and a painter needs paints and a paintbrush, a writer uses tools as well. These are different tools, they are not ones you pick up and hold; but without them, a story would not be complete. Here is a list of just a few of the literary devices and techniques writers frequently use in allegorical stories. They fall into the category of figurative language, or language in which the literal meaning of the words is different from the intended meaning. (We take a closer look at figurative language in Chapter 9.)

• Metaphor. A direct relationship in which one idea or thing substitutes for another without being directly stated.

• Simile. An indirect relationship comparing one thing or idea to another usually using the words like or as.

• Personification. Human thoughts, perceptions, and actions are attributed to inanimate objects or to ideas.

• Symbolism. The use of objects or images to represent abstract ideas. A symbol must be a visible or tangible thing, whereas what it represents must be universal.

• Hyperbole. An exaggerated description.

Characters Make the Story

One of the most important things a writer will do for his or her story is invent memorable characters. Characters can't exist just for the sake of the action. Characters exist in a story for a far bigger purpose. The characters are an integral part of the story—the part that the reader will attempt to identify with or even judge or deny.

The characters tell the story, live the story, have the relationships within the story, and judge the action and other characters; they are what makes a work of fiction come alive. Every book you read will use characters to help you find a bigger meaning. Characters in a book will always be representative of you, of people you know, of relationships you've had or will have, or of people in the world that you may have encountered or will encounter. They are the observers and the actors. Without them we would be left with little more than descriptions of places or seasons. Without characters in whatever form they take, there can be no story. (See Chapter 8 for more on choosing characters.)

Some characters will not shout "symbol" as loud as Ahab and Ishmael in Moby-Dick, but have more subtle messages for the reader. In Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, for example, we are confronted with far more subtle characterizations. But the way Woolf has developed the main character in this book speaks volumes about character and metaphor. In Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf offers us a character whose personality and purpose is evident from the first line of the story to the last. In the first line of the story—"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself"—Woolf gives us an immediate impression of a gentle woman of possible means. The very idea that someone else could buy her flowers for her implies that she could have sent someone else.

Of course, that person could be anyone, but one of the many scenarios is that someone works for her. We, of course, must read on to be sure. We know right away that there is a reason for buying flowers that day. Does she buy flowers every day or is there a special occasion involved? And why does she need to choose her own flowers? Does she normally buy flowers? If so, what is different about this particular day? Mrs. Dalloway has some kind of purpose, which will also make us wonder whether taking charge is

part of her personality, generally speaking. Literally, all we know from this first line is that Mrs. Dalloway will buy flowers, but this one sentence implies so much more, from who Mrs. Dalloway is to what is going on in her life. While Mrs. Dalloway is blissfully ignorant of her own sense of loss in the life she has chosen, we—the readers—see it and feel it for her. In the novel, her situation is comparable to another seemingly unconnected story line and character in the book. Septimus Warren Smith is a World War I veteran suffering from the trauma of his war experiences and makes a conscious decision to kill himself rather than face life in an asylum. Mrs. Dalloway in her ignorant bliss and Septimus in his tortured mind have both made similar decisions. Mrs. Dalloway has committed emotional suicide, whereas Septimus has committed physical suicide. With her last line of the book, Woolf brings the character of Mrs. Dalloway full circle: "For there she was." This was her life. This is the one she chose, and this would be the one she lived, whereas Septimus, too, chose the life he would not live.

Basically the story of Mrs. Dalloway is one big character sketch. Mrs. Dalloway goes through life sampling what it has to offer. Each delight is a joy in its own right. She never has a yearning to specialize or to be "superb" at anything, she just longs to live and be herself. Being able to enjoy life is Mrs. Dalloway's gift and what makes her character come to life. That's how Virginia Woolf wanted her readers to experience her, but at the same time there's a bittersweet sadness that meanders its way through her life based on the decisions she has made. The use of characters in a work of fiction is not a device in itself, but how they fit together using symbolism and theme is a device. For example, the last line of Mrs. Dalloway ("For there she was") reflects the meaning of the first line ("Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself"). This is a device that Woolf uses to solidify your understanding of who this character is—one line parallels the other and helps you make a conclusion about the personality of Mrs. Dalloway.

Dissecting the Theme

When an author begins to write a story, it's essential that he have a concept of the theme he's trying to communicate to the readers. It's fine to have an exciting story and lots of great characters, but what's the point of assembling them all in one plot if there is no real meaning to the story? What "truth" about life does the author want to convey to the reader? Everyone has a set of truths that they hold as a means of identifying themselves there are personal truths, and there are general truths. These "truths" that the author attempts to convey to the reader are what constitute the overall theme of the story. The best way to try to identify a theme is to try to state the theme in a single sentence. For example, In Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, the surface story is about a young boy, Huckleberry Finn, a child of nature unschooled, without the manners of society, with a good heart and wild spirit who travels down the Mississippi River with Jim, an escaped slave. They are two different people, of different ages and races, but they are equal in every other sense—they are both human beings and they both seek freedom (Huck from his cruel, greedy, drunken father, and even the Widow Douglas and her "sivilizing" ways; and Jim from slavery). The raft becomes their home, the river becomes their world, and as they float along, they learn about life from each other.

There are many other themes and truths to be uncovered regarding Mark Twain's thoughts and feelings about hypocrisy, religion, the role of imagination, about racism and prejudice, and finding one's own truth as Huck is always trying to do—a kind of model for the rest of us who try to make sense of the same things. But the main theme is this: All human beings are free and equal no matter what rules society puts in place.

Personal Themes

Maybe an author is fascinated by his own family history because of the interesting stories he heard in childhood, or because of the interesting family members who were very much like characters he could imagine in a book. When combined, these reallife experiences can make for some wonderful stories.

Contemporary author and New York Times correspondent Rick Bragg tells us about the loved ones in his life in at least two of his books, All Over but the Shoutin ' and AvasMan. He tells the story of his mother in one book and of his father in the other. His truth is about coming to terms with what his family and what his connections to his family mean to him. The theme of his work is developed around how his protagonists lived their lives. He wants us to know them as he knew them or learned about them. But why would we care about his family? What can we learn from what his family meant to him?

This is where the art comes in. Rick Bragg uses real people from his own life history to tell us something about life in the rural South during the twentieth century. But he also tells us about suffering, sorrow, and the struggle to survive by using humor and wit. He shows us how his family made their way in this world in terms of stories told to him—stories both real and imagined.

What Bragg has written is a fictional autobiography. In other words, he is writing about what he knows to be true through memory and storytelling, but he fills in the blanks to make the story complete and readable for those who do not know him, or his family, or anything about the South for that matter.

He does this by creating conversations, characters, scenes, and settings. He is not attempting to recreate facts as they occurred but to tell us a story he imagines.

Taking it beyond the realm of fact into imagination is what makes his work fiction. Like any work of good fiction, Bragg hides both truths and mysteries for us to discover beneath his story lines. He touches his readers by writing about a particular theme in such a way that allows us to relate to the aspects that have touched all of our lives in one way or another: being poor, sad, overworked, provoked, angry, jealous, vengeful, feeling foolish, or trying to make others feel foolish. He looks at flaws in his own world that have universal meaning for everyone.

Universal Themes

Although some themes appear only in individual books, other themes are taken on by many authors. There is a saying that there are no new stories, only new ways to tell them, and you can apply that when you think of some of the pervasive themes in literature.

There are countless universal themes that everyone in the world can relate to, and these are what fiction writers try to communicate when they construct their stories. One universal theme in literature is the victimization of women. Female and male writers have explored this theme for centuries. Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, more recently Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, and (as you read earlier) Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter all take on the theme of female victimization. What happens to women if they so much as attempt to break societal rules and live their lives with the same freedoms that the men in their society have? Well, there is rarely a happy ending to these stories. Many of the women die at the end of these stories, either by suicide or by execution—and if they don't die, someone else suffers the agony of their desire to be free individuals.

The women in most of these novels are not shrinking violets. They are strong-willed, intelligent women who find it hard to deny their desire for independence and the need to pursue their happiness despite a society that does not allow women access to the same freedoms as men. The message is, in many cases, that the desire to be free is even stronger than the threat of suffering if they attempt to break the rules of society.

The reason the theme of female victimization is still so prevalent in fiction is because it touches so many societies worldwide. Perhaps these authors were trying to make a statement not only within their respective societies, but also to the world at large. What was the statement? Well, when you read these books, you can figure it out for yourself. If we tell you here, how will you ever incorporate the message into your own knowledge base of global understanding?

Okay, okay ... how about this: The desire for freedom and equality is so powerful that people are willing to risk everything, even their lives, to achieve it. Or to be more specific to the plight of women, you could say that the imposition of societal law on only one part of the population in an effort to establish control and assert male dominance is unjust and cruel, especially when it defies the innate desires and the rights of women.

Cultural and Regional Themes

Whereas some themes are personal or universal, others are cultural. For example, some themes are specific to a certain country or region of the world. There are even themes within one society that some relate to more than others. African Americans, for example, will most likely relate to a story about racism and slavery in a different way than a Caucasian person or an Asian person might.

A good example of a regionalized theme is American fiction. The United States can still be considered a new country when you compare it to the age of the rest of the world. With a new world comes new ideas, beliefs, and dreams, and therefore new literary themes. In the next section, we take a look at how regional themes played a part in James Fenimore Cooper's writings.

Imagery and Setting

Where a story takes place is as important to the theme as character and any literary device. The setting will determine who the characters are and how they interact. A setting can be symbolic in itself, as can the details of the location. For example, go back to Huck and Jim on that raft: a Caucasian boy and an African American man isolated together on a raft—a symbol of freedom, the vehicle that takes them away from their oppressive lives. The river gives them samplings of what life in that region of America is all about—the good, the bad, and the ugly. If they were floating down the Hudson River rather than the Mississippi River, they would have to have been different characters, and their experiences would be completely different.

The imagery that any author describes is a symbolic device used to help move the story along and make the theme more evident to the reader. Why did Melville feel the need to set his story of good versus evil on the sea? What imagery does he use to push his theme forward, to lift it from the confines of life beneath the surface to a place more obvious to the reader? Although it is true that the author wants to obscure the theme so that you can figure it out for yourself, he or she doesn't want the theme to be lost. He wants it within your reach, and will employ devices to make the theme pop out at you here and there throughout the story. In Moby-Dick the whale is larger than human beings while the ocean is larger than life itself. It is unpredictable, beautiful, dramatic, and cruel all at the same time—not unlike the struggles of human existence.

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) is a uniquely American storyteller of the nineteenth century. Thematic concerns about the young country of America are taken up by this author in many of his tales of the American wilderness. The Leatherstocking Tales is a work that contains five novels (and you may have heard of some of them thanks to Hollywood): The Pioneers (1823); The Prairie (1827); The Last of the Mohicans (1826); The Pathfinder (1841); and The Deerslayer (1842).

Setting is vital to Cooper's writing. If Cooper had lived in England, perhaps he would never have been a fiction writer at all. Perhaps the new world was his creative inspiration, because Cooper enjoyed showing off the "new country" to his readers (which is now what we would call the "old country"). His writing about the Native Americans and early pioneers contrasted the old world (Europe) and the new world (America).

Cooper's descriptions and themes are important for people to read even now because they take you back to what the original colonists may have seen, known, and felt. He gives you descriptions and vivid imagery of what America looked like in its earliest stages of transformation—the age before skyscrapers and superhighways. Not only is his writing important to us historically, it also contains themes of survival and concepts regarding tolerance of unfamiliar cultures that hold true to this day.

The Least You Need to Know

• Authors employ literary devices in fiction writing to help the reader identify the meaning of the story.

• Allegorical literature is used to help readers find answers for themselves.

• Character analysis is essential to discovering theme.

• In addition to universal themes, there are cultural and regional themes in fiction.

• Imagery and setting are as important to the theme as the characters themselves.