What Are Rayjay Walshs Strengths and Weaknesses as the Narrator - Essay Example

22 October Beamish Boy Introduction: ‘Beamish Boy’ is a story about a young boy who is on vacation with his family. The story revolves around this boy and his perception of the world around him, his family and his own relationship with them. The reader realises early on that the story narrated, is the story of RayJay, the protagonist, a 5 year old boy in his own words. One can empathize with the protagonist; literally put in his shoes, the reader feels like he is a part of the story, a part of RayJay’s life. The story concerns a boy obsessed with his kite. He needs his fathers help to fly the kite. The kite is a medium through which the relationship between the members of Ray’s family is revealed. Let us first analyse the strengths of the whole story where the writer shall indulge in certain passages which draw the quality of Raj Jay Walsh. Strengths: Ray Jay’s narrative consists of short simple sentences, sprinkled liberally with multiple adjectives. His vocabulary is not developed and language used is simple and even crudely innocent at times. The reader then is able to create a highly realistic picture of the scenarios described in the book. This can be inferred from the beginning of the story itself: “My kite is black and plastic spread out flat and black against the grass and underneath the wind is shaky. Wind is a snake. Water is a snake and grass is a snake and snake is wind and water but snake is not grass. Upon reading this, the reader can picture the kite trailing behind the little boy flying along the grass. To his mind the blips, twists and bops of the kite as it skims the surface of the grass seems to be that of a snake moving, like water and wind make things move, he associates such movements with the only things he understands. Children view things from different perspective and remind adults, the reader in this case, of a different view of the world. The simple romance in a kite being dragged by a boy over he back yard. Repetition The narrator repeats similar ideas and sentences, reinforcing the scene in the writers mind. The child that he is, his mind is very easily distracted oscillating from one idea to another and back gives a sense of a whirlwind of ideas, as is with any 5 year old, making the story highly realistic. He is as any young boy fixated on his kite. His thoughts move from his kite to the ocean to his sister and back to his kite. “My Kite has sticky paper eyes and is a bat. I can’t do anymore. Bats can see with their ears, Seamus says”. Further, the multiple use of the word ‘and’ only increases the descriptive nature of the story. The reader does not have to use his imagination, the story paints a picture; “There are no trees except the ones far away, just a clothesline and flat yellow grass and big grass hissing in the back”. This in itself is evidence of where the family was vacationing. The use of the word ‘and’ as well as multiple adjectives to describe the same situation lends to the story a higher degree of realism. This can be seen further “When I open the refrigerator, fog falls out the way the sun does here” The use of highly descriptive words are almost poetic in the way that they convey an emotion or activity, as only done by a child. RayJay interprets the difference in temperatures and the condensation caused as a fog that he identifies with the fog in the air before sun rise. Captivated Imagination: The narration captures the reader, touches him, forcing him to relive his own childhood, or that which he sees around his own interaction with children. The absence of a comprehensive flow of thoughts may make it difficult for the reader to get a complete sense of the backdrop of the story, however, the same is used to grip the reader and one finds oneself understanding, associating and empathizing with RayJay. “His arms reached around me. I laughed so hard and he laughed and we laughed ‘cause I had four arms in the mirror, two like worms and two like snakes.” The reader is transported to his own childhood, interacting with his own siblings and is captivated by the story. His unique perspective on life even the sun forces the reader to interpret the mundane, in a new, more interesting manner. “The sun smiles all the time…. But you can’t trust him even though he smiles. He will burn you even if it’s cloudy and he’s not around, and if he is you can’t look at his smile or he will fry your eyes like eggs” The use of metaphors comes through in the way he innocently translates the world around him so as to give himself meaning, comparing the sun frying eyes like eggs, the wind to a snake, his eyes being oceaned up. Children see everything, but dont necessarily understand any of it. Whether theyre protagonists or witnesses, they tend to be one step behind - or to one side of - the attentive adult reader, which sets up an interesting narrative gap through which the unsettling elements can squeeze." - Charles Lambert. In this story, RayJay offers a child’s view of a vacation with his family. He describes in vivid detail, the areas where they are vacationing and the interaction of his family members with one another. He is at 5 years old just beginning to develop primitive reasoning and at this stage bursting with curiosity, he asks a thousand questions, things up of a thousand different thoughts, considers a thousand different situations and scenarios. Ray Jay interprets the world around him as he sees it. He does not in most cases understand what is happening but states it as he sees it; like a fact, innocent though full of implications evident to the reader. Like a camera, he look at things differently and presents a different angle, a picture which although is innocent appears warped to the viewer. The child might not understand whats going on, but readers are likely to. "Children can have instinctual knowledge which we adults can lose, and these insights yet gaps can be the stuff of dramatic conflict and motor a story" - Elizabeth Baines. RayJay does not understand why his brother, is absent all of the time, he doesn’t not understand that his parents are not happy together, he simply states what he sees leaving it to the reader to draw their own conclusions. This can be seen as in the following situations, “Ma is feeding Mo. She has a cloth over it, but I can see her smoothest part” “..He is wet and sweaty and he smells sour like wet bread this close...” “..He doesn’t look because he never does and doesn’t either anymore...” “They were jelly purple when she left, not purple like Ma’s eye the time she was racoonish”. The reader can see that Ray’s father is an alcoholic, possibly violent, his parents unhappy, and his family, dysfunctional. This difference between the narrators and readers understanding, the new perspectives pointed out by the narrator and their interpretation by the reader has been used to give the story a dramatic effect. Weaknesses: The writer has a few weaknesses in the story which have surfaced in the writing style of Ray Jay Walsh. To begin with, the story lacks a proper structure. Once the reader starts to understand the story, it takes various twists and turns and changes directions too often for the reader to have a constant base of following and understanding the story. The reader takes a while to realise what the writer is trying to talk about. Writers usually have a subtle way of informing the reader about the plot of the story, and the good ones are distinguished by the best ones by being able to capture the thoughts and the imagination of the reader as long as possible, however, not delaying it too much which might result in the reader getting bored completely. In this story, Ray Jay was able to capture the imagination of the reader, but he lacks the suspense and the charm of a polished outcome once the plot is revealed. Unanswered Questions RayJay simply states what he sees and his interpretation of the same. The reader however, is left with a multitude of unanswered questions. Where does Seamus disappear to at intervals in the story? What is the underlying current between his mother, father and brother? The reader is left to draw his own conclusions. The story ends however; with RayJay realising somewhat that there is a conflict. He does not understand the conflict or even consciously take note of the conflict, but he acknowledges to himself the existence of one. He wonders where his brother disappears all the time. When he spots him at the market, he waves, but Seamus does not see him. He cries. He has no explanation for crying but he realises somewhere that there is a reason to cry. The story has a tragic undertone, masked behind the narrator’s childlike innocence. To conclude the analysis, the narration has been wonderful which is quite unique in a different way. It might be difficult for the reader to gauge the meaning in the beginning, but however, the ideas are generated immensely throughout the narration and can easily take the reader on a beautiful journey where it enables the readers to see things from a very diverse perspective altogether. Work Cited Beamish Boy, Ray Jay Walsh Read More