Review 7

Rajeet Guha New School Homework 7 In her book, Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, Janet Burroway has devoted two chapters to characterization or the building of character in fiction. Characterization is aided by two methods namely the direct method and the indirect method. In her initial chapter on characterization she has gone at length to build character using the four direct methods of character presentation; appearance, action, dialogue and thought. The first two direct methods of appearance and action transmit robustly to readers the views or the opinions about the dramatis personae. The next two direct methods of dialogue and thought communicate, expose and lay bare the identities and the true nature of the dramatis personae. Characters could be from real life or mere flights of fantasy but must be exciting, credible, riveting and pique our curiosity. This is true of all living characters whether in human form or in some other form. Sometimes human personality traits are thrust upon nonhumans. This is in line with creating compelling fiction as long as it is not overdone. Excessive use of the characteristics of humans applied to those in the nonhuman, natural world will result in the problem that John Ruskin named the pathetic fallacy. Anne Lamott has said that characters in fiction often mirror the readers themselves either partially or wholly. Readers have affinity to some characters as they see themselves in that person. Unsavory characters repulse readers as they see those that they detest and despise in them. Sometimes, the character’s personality is like the God Janus or two-faced or duplicitous and might be appealing to a few readers. On other occasions, a genuine character may have to suffer a tumultuous tug of war in his mind about which course of action to choose between two alternatives. This will often reverberate and echo with the readers as they too are posed with dilemmas in their daily lives just like the fictional characters are. Certain virtues in characters might seem heartening to readers while vices in the same characters might be disheartening. These four direct methods of representing and building characters metamorphose abstract ideas into living beings with specific and unique features that readers can visualize in their minds. Appearance, action, dialogue and thought reveal characters to the readers. The short story Gryphon has been written by Charles Baxter. Baxter is an illustrious writer. His story is situated in Five Oaks, Michigan in the Midwest. On the surface the story is about a drab, obscure place called Five Oaks in the countryside. Tommy is a fourth grader who lives with his baby brother and parents in Five Oaks. His parents are not distinguished and neither are the other residents. Tommy goes to a nondescript school where the teaching is insipid, monotonous and mostly mechanical and rote. Most of the teachers like Mr. Hibler are vapid and lack the creative spark. Mr. Hibler is ill for a few days and there is a new substitute teacher called Miss Ferenczi. This new teacher seems unreal. She substitutes fiction for facts. Even the students are astounded by the teacher’s poor grasp over facts and concepts. Even her appearance, demeanor, hairdo and dressing up are bizarre. She has lines on her face. In this aspect Tommy, the narrator who in flashback recalls this female teacher in his fourth grade, finds her similar to the fictional Disney character Pinocchio. Miss Ferenczi, the strange female teacher who appears partially human and partially nonhuman in her weird personality, is the protagonist of the short story Gryphon. Like Pinocchio, she seems to be nonhuman and also like Pinocchio she is an inveterate liar. She concocts facts and presents them to the perplexed and incredulous class who despite doubting her statements is entranced by her talk and method of teaching. The students including Tommy, the first person narrator, thinks of her as otherworldly and appreciates her fantastic tales. Some students like Tommy think there might be a kernel of truth in her statements but even others who realize she is a charlatan, a pseudo teacher and a fabulist are captivated by her stories about exotic places, dubious lineage and ultimately mythical and imaginary creatures like the Gryphon. The Gryphon is a creature that is only the product of legend and folklore. It is a mythological hybrid creature that has the body and legs of a lion while possessing the head and wings of an eagle. Miss Frenczi is also a slippery character that seems to be partially female and partially mythical in her personality attributes. She also has a monstrous side when she predicts with her Tarot Cards that one of her students is doomed to die. This monstrous aspect also lends her a resemblance to the Gryphon. This female teacher lacks substance and depth but makes up for it by style and charisma. Not only is she a substitute teacher but she also substitutes fiction in place of fact. Finally, looking on the positive side this exotic and outlandish teacher is sapid unlike the vapid teachers who lack the spark of creativity. This female teacher can spin yarns. She lets her imagination run riot and offers a creative mode of teaching as opposed to the humdrum and insipid styles of teaching that are a staple of the school. She offers alternative ways of thinking to students who are accustomed to thinking in conventional ways. For the first time students to learn to see things from another angle, question their established beliefs and are initiated to think out of the box. They learn that most facts are real while there is only a thin line separating other facts from fiction. Every tongue shall confess is a short story written by Z Z Packer in the third person. Packer is a preternatural writer. She is an African American writer who feels strongly about women’s issues. She is a feminist. She is a detractor of organized religion including Christianity. She thinks Christianity in all its variants including Evangelicalism is an instrument of patriarchy. She thinks of religion essentially as a male social construct intended to subjugate women, relegate them to a secondary and domestic role, make women subservient to men and impede the progress of women. She views religion in a negative light and she says evangelical Christianity in Black Churches also betray the same prejudices, hypocrisies, abuses, perversions and depravities that pervade White Churches. Males of all races and religions coerce women and compel them to follow their diktats. Religion in her opinion is an inflexible institution that is dogmatic and hypocritical. The office bearers of organized religion are venal and vile. Organized religion is the universal church of males, for males and by males. Religion offers no succor or liberation to women who have been fettered to its yoke. The story also shows that contrary to the hypocritical incumbents of religious offices who stifle the progress of their female counterparts; sometimes, secular men who are atheists are the real progressives. Rock Springs is a short story written by Richard Ford. Richard Ford is a minimalist like Hemingway. Like Hemingway, his terse prose is stylistic and written always in the genre of realism. In fact, his subgenre is dirty realism. Along with Raymond Carver, he is one of its eminent exponents. Ford, in his stories portrays the subsumed sections of society or the submerged population. Ford describes the lives of petty thieves, delinquents, divorcees, dysfunctional families, failed marriages, guilt-racked individuals, single mothers or fathers, unemployed, marginalized people, often the lower classes struggling to make ends meet. Ford is a chronicler of the American West and shatters the myth and romance associated with it. In pared down prose Ford reveals the unvarnished truth and the harsh realities of life that accompany those who live in the West. There are no halcyon days and opulence in the barren and dusty landscape but it is instead a rough environment where there are characters skimming the surface of the law and trying to eke out a living in an environment that is as tough as nails.