Comparative Analysis of Mark Danielewski, Charles Dickens and Kafka - Essay Example

?Narrative Style – A Comparative Analysis – Prajakta Kanegaonkar We enjoy listening of stories from various narrators for each narrator would have his or her own style of telling it. The question whether we listen to the narrating style or the story in itself is yet to receive an appropriate and accurate answer. We are going to analyse the narrative style of three writers, namely, Mark Danielewski, Charles Dickens and Kafka in this essay. Hence the thesis of the essay is, To study the impact of narrative style on reader with respect to aesthetics and genre Introduction Narrative style makes a powerful statement on the minds of readers. It is imperative that a writer chooses an absolutely perfect style to tell his story. It is also imperative that the writer takes into account the genre he is going to experiment with. It is not unusual that a complicated style overwhelms a reader. There are also good chances whereby a reader may simply lose interest in the story as he is not able to follow the story due to complicated plotting of incidences. However the strength of the story also gets high lightened by the narration which keeps the reader going. Characteristics of narrative styles used by the writers and its impact on readers Danielewski writes in metafiction style. His book has distinct multiple stories. Zampano and his review of a fictitious film, Johnny Truant’s story, Will Navidson’s account of his life and relationships and finally the story of the house in itself. With the extensive use of footnotes and appendices Danielewski tells all the stories simultaneously to the readers. Johnny’s story runs parallel with Zampano’s story and Will Navidson’s account. He uses multiple fonts and different colours for different words. There are mirror images of paragraphs which makes it difficult for an average reader to read the book. Whenever the word ‘house’ is printed in the book, it is printed in the colour blue. Blue is often considered and is associated with cinema. Since the documentary shows the constant expansion of the house from inside the colour blue connects the reader with the cinema which is being assessed. The stories of different characters are told in two different typographies. For many readers the setting of the book seems jumbling. The stories get mixed up in the way they are printed. The mirror images of the paragraphs end up in frustrating the reader. It can also pose serious question on the continuity of the story. Danielewski leaves track of a story in between and reverts to what happens in Johnny’s life. The reader is caught up in Johnny’s story and continues with it forgetting the original track. However after some pages Danielewski returns to the story of Navidson Record. This forces the reader to go back a few pages and catch the thread again. The changes happening inside the house are a sign of emotional and mental state of the people living within. The five and half minute hallway is a clear indication of that. For full five minutes Will keeps walking in the hallway that has suddenly appeared in the house and finds the other end at a wall. This is a clear sign of mental torment he is going through. He has come to this place to save his relations with his family. The sign that Karen keeps looking out of the window to seek his return indicates how lonely she has become and so wants Will to be at her side. The idea of five and a half minute hallway in your own house that is you may come across a dark walking alley that leads you nowhere but a wall certainly terrifies the reader. The depression of the character that he is going nowhere in life transcends through this symbol to the reader. This symbol of hallway is seemingly simple and innocent looking passageway of any home can turn into a deadly dark terrain with no end. The stories in fact are not jumbling but are recursive in nature. They are an intricate maze through which there is no way out. Soon after getting lost in the maze the house takes over the reader through the narrator of the story Johnny Truant. The stories are layered in one book. It is a story about Zampano who writes an academic critical review of a film which does not exist. It is a story about alcoholic troubled person such as Johnny Truant who is trying to understand this review and piece it together. It is the story of Will and Karen and their family, presumably the only soft angle to the story who are trying to get over their own fears and psychological problems depicted through the house. It is the story of the house in itself which finally takes over the reader’s mind through various characters and their lives. If analysed closely we see that these stories are intricately woven together and hence the crisscross arrangement of typographies, letters, colours, patterns are fully justified. Sometimes these patterns also manage to show the agony of the character it is depicting. In such case the reader requires absolute patience to deal with initial pages and get over his or her anxiety of reading a not so normal book. The patterning and narrative style adds more to the horror element of the story. For an average reader reading linearly lined chapters of a book which tells and horror story should have an absolutely engaging plot. But for Danielewski this style of storytelling guarantees to grab the attention of the reader. It is not a gimmick used to make the stories attractive. This is what happens when you hurry through a maze: the faster you go, the worse you are entangled. (Page 115, House of Leaves) This is what the writer warns the reader through his book. But by now the reader is caught on. He won’t be able to go back and shut the book. It will become must for him or her to complete reading of the book. The book transcends the limit of horror genre and steps into a heart to heart talk between the reader and the story teller. However end of the hallway everybody dies and the realisation leaves the reader aghast. Is it that after all the sufferings you go through you naturally lose the desire to exist to live? The story constantly keeps telling that walls keep closing on the characters. Does that mean that life is closing from all the directions and there is no way out? The wall at the end of the hallway leaves the reader depressed and indicates that there is no light at the end of the dark hallway and there is only one solution. All this written in a maze-like pattern which the reader finally adapts to and starts seeing through that for real messages given by the book. In Bleak House the story is told by two narrators, one is the leading female character Esther herself and the second one is a third party narrator. The story for Esther is her personal account of her life. In the beginning of the book Esther clarifies to an average reader that she is not clever. Whatever she claims to share is from her own perspective and the way she thinks and sees life. The third party narrator however is extremely powerful than Esther. The reader cannot even make it out if the narrator is male or female. He or she presents an absolute third party perspective to Esther’s story. From the style of the narration the reader can make out that the narrator is pretty close to the centre of the story that is Esther and Esther’s life. However exact nature of relationship is not determined. The tone of the narrator is authoritative and compared to that Esther’s tone of narration stands out starkly. Some instances which Esther leaves without any explanation, for she may not have any, are outlined by the narrator. Esther is also a victim of self-praise and especially when she claims that all she wants is to write about others. When they took me through all the rooms that I might see them for the last time; and when some cried, ‘Esther, dear, say good-bye to me here, at my bedside, where you first spoke so kindly to me!’ and when others asked me only to write their names, ‘With Esther’s love;’ and when they all surrounded me with their parting presents, and clung to me weeping, and cried, ‘What shall we do when dear, dear Esther’s gone!’ and when I tried to tell them how forbearing, and how good they had all been to me, and how I blessed, and thanked them everyone; what a heart I had! (Page 28, Bleak House) Esther’s emotionality makes the reader attached to the story. Irrespective of her uneducated ways of dictating her story, her reliable-unreliable stand on circumstances, she comes across as fresh air rather than the cold matter of fact tone of the third party narrator. Dickens manages to keep the attention of the reader through Esther. Charles Dickens has made mockery about the chancery and legal system in England where under the name of law there was total anarchy in ruling of the state. In fact after this book got published, it was taken note of and the legal system was improved through a series of laws. Although the book highlights this struggle to claim the fortune rightfully belonging to Richard, Ada, Lady Dedlock through series of wills created; through the narrations of Esther the story takes a different dimension. It portrays life of a simple girl who gets disfigured because of small pox. The coldness of the law seems to have been reserved for the third party narrator. This is where the narrations start blending beautifully. Although sometimes a reader may find Esther’s story a bit dramatic, it is perfectly balanced by the narrator whose job is to not to let the attention of the reader wander. Franz Kafka’s narrative in the Castle borders on boundary of hopelessness and finding hope in a society which refuses to accept the protagonist K. In a true Kafka style of writing where he does not give an explanation to readers, Kafka beautifully outlines the struggle of a person to find his place in the universe. The villagers are not ready to accept K as he is not confirmed by the authority of the village that is ‘The Castle.’ K is insistent that he wants to be accepted by the village. In such case he tries to get the acceptance from the castle every now and then. When analysed closely, one can relate with the metaphors used in the story. This metaphoric style of writing is not new to literature. In fact there have been many great writers who have conveyed meaning of life and its demands on a human being in prolific ways. What makes Kafka different is his sudden style where the reader has to go back a few pages to comprehend, understand and digest what the writer has to tell him. Kafka keeps his narration mysterious almost enigmatic when it comes to portraying the castle in the story. The castle hill was hidden, veiled in mist and darkness…K. stood for a long time gazing into the illusory emptiness above him. (Page 2, The Castle by Franz Kafka) Kafka never explains the exact relation of K with the castle although on surface it seems he is a land surveyor ordered into the village by authorities of the castle who later do not bother to acknowledge his presence. This mysterious element gives freedom to the reader to fill the gaps in the narration with his or her own ideas. Is this a relation between acceptance and rejection by the society? Does it mean that the supreme authority above all of us is God, is always elusive? Does that refer to state and political system and its elusiveness to the people surrounding? All these questions give an immense freedom to the reader to interpret and understand the story in his or her own way. Hence the mystery element which is almost enigmatic helps the story and its interpretation better than direct discussion of these issues with the reader. There are passages which are narratives told by the villagers and then dialogues and narratives by K. These keep alternating in the story. For the story the narratives by the villagers may not seem to take hold but they make sense when narration transcends the boundaries of a struggle of an ordinary man for acceptance in an ordinary world. Franz Kafka constantly felt threatened and shunned by the society around him. His struggle for acceptance is reflected in this story. The narrative is such that every reader identifies with this struggle and finds his or her meaning of the story. Every writer in his narration leaves gaps for his or her readers to fill and identify. It is necessary because that fulfils the reading of the story in his or her own way for the reader. The reader completes the picture in his or her mind and then proceeds to understand the story. Kafka leaves too many gaps in the story for a reader. However these gaps help the reader understand K’s exclusion and pain in a far better way. K’s struggle for acceptance in the village, going against the village when he thinks that circumstances are becoming absurd and finally his leaving of his girlfriend Frieda for people who are outcast like him is told with an enigmatic background of castle as a metaphor for probably God, system, authorities, politics, culture, existentialism and what. It is the job of the reader to identify what it is all about. Kafka cleverly leaves the reader to that. Finding purpose of life becomes a mission for K and his struggle for it. He rebels constantly against the system to an extent when people in the village start feeling insecure and threatened because of his disruptions. The village does not take it kindly. “…a stranger, a man who isn’t wanted and is in everybody’s way, a man who’s always causing trouble.” (Page 10 The Castle Franz Kafka) This is a remark by Frieda’s landlady when she notices how K is trying to upset the vague but set system of the village. This also reflects an attitude of the village or society where everything that is not established is not accepted. He initially identifies with Frieda because he sees the same struggle in her. She has made her way through ranks and has attained some position in the society around.  “Your eyes,” K. says to Frieda, “speak to me far more of conquests still to come than of conquests past.  But the opposition one meets in the world is great, and becomes greater the higher one aims.” (The Castle, Franz Kafka) He sees the heroism he so needs in her eyes, which is actually the ‘purpose’ of life identifies by every reader. He finally leaves her for something more fulfilling. This leads a reader to believe that what it seems to be heroism is not heroism at all. The real heroism lies in the fact that one has to do what one’s heart thinks is right. As stated metaphors are used by almost all the writers all over the world, Kafka’s narrative style in The Castle however takes metaphors to the next level. He doesn’t explain he lets others interpret; he shrouds them in mystery and enigma only to lead the reader to the discovery of primal truth and purpose of life. The narrative style elevates the short story genre of The Castle to the epic of life which is the beauty of the technique of Kafka’s story-telling style. Conclusion In all the three stories the narrative styles have made a prominent impact on the readers. All the three stories belong to three different eras and genres. Each of the writers has made his storytelling unique by telling it in his own characteristic way. House of Leaves jumbles and confuses the reader which is required for the effective setting of horror story, Bleak House adds an element of suspense through murder and detective angle and subsequent absolving of Lady Dedlock and Esther finding her happiness and K’s futile struggle for acceptance and finally his shunning of it when he finds the purpose of his life, all these styles and moving of circumstances want the reader asking for more. Narrative styles make or break the story for a reader. Elaborate detailing of the story and developing technique of storytelling is required. Every writer will always have his or her own distinct style of storytelling and narration which later becomes the signature style. It is a process of creativity for a writer. The technique well developed and planned increases the aesthetics of the book or the story to read. However there is also a danger of the writer going overboard with the technique or gets entangled in it. The different typographies and elaborate footnotes can annoy the reader immensely. Too many characters and situations narrated by two narrators can complicate the story and too much of mystery and enigma to the metaphors will leave the readers shunning the story for not understanding and comprehending it. This leads to conclude that narrative style definitely highlights the story but it is finally a creative technique. The creative technique is like a frame on the portrait. It should highlight the portrait but not distract attention away from the portrait. Similarly the technique of storytelling should highlight the story. Only an accomplished writer can strike a fine balance which is evident in the stories we have discussed above. References 1. An Atheist and Franz Kafka’s “The Castle” – Kile Jones http://www.stateofformation.org 1. Bleak House – Charles Dickens - http://dikens2002.narod.ru 2. Bleak House: Public and Private worlds -http://www.cyberpat.com 3. Metafiction http://english.emory.edu 4. The ABCs of Reality Construction – R. J. Hembree http://www.writersvillage.com 5. Levity's Rainbow 6. Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories 1995 ISBN: 0805210555 7. The Castle by Franz Kafka - http://dannysbyrne.wordpress.com Read More