Analyzing Narrative: Characterization, Themes, and Symbolism
Analyzing Narrative: Characterization, Relationships, and Symbolism
Characterization: Relationships and Personalities
Analyze key characters’ traits.
- Example: David’s internal conflict about his identity.
- David: The protagonist, struggling with his sexual identity. His relationship with Giovanni is central to the narrative, showing his fear, denial, and societal pressures.
- Giovanni: Passionate and emotional, he represents freedom and vulnerability. His room is a space of intimacy but also confinement.
- Hella: David’s fiancée, symbolizing conventional societal expectations and the conflict between public and private identity.
Focalization
- Narrator’s Knowledge: Limited vs. omniscient perspective.
- Example: David’s first-person perspective provides insight into his thoughts but limits understanding of others. His biased view creates tension between his internal conflict and external reality.
Type of Narrator
- First-Person vs. Third-Person: Identify the narrative voice.
- Example: Giovanni’s Room uses a first-person narrator.
- Unreliable Narrator: David’s perspective is unreliable as his fear and shame distort his perception of events and relationships.
Contextualizing the Fragment
- Setting and Symbolism: Connect the fragment to the larger narrative.
- Example: Giovanni’s room symbolizes confinement and secrecy. It represents a safe space for Giovanni and David’s relationship but also becomes a prison for Giovanni, both physically and emotionally.
- The room contrasts with the broader world outside, highlighting themes of isolation and societal judgment.
Main Themes and Symbolism
Themes in Ariel
- Death and Rebirth
- Feminism and Identity
- Nature and Self-Destruction
Themes in Giovanni’s Room
- Identity and Self-Acceptance
- David’s journey reflects the struggle between self-acceptance and societal pressures.
- Homosexuality and Societal Norms
- The novel critiques the rigid norms and prejudices of the 1950s, portraying the tragic consequences of repression.
- Isolation and Confinement
- Giovanni’s room and David’s internal conflict symbolize the confinement imposed by societal expectations and personal denial.
Poetry Analysis: “Poppies in July” by Sylvia Plath
This poem is written from a first-person narrative perspective and in the confessional style that is very usual in Plath’s poetry. The poem explores themes of grief and escape, and it also suggests themes of death and suicide. The title, “Poppies in July”, creates a bright and colorful image, but within the poem, these poppies are depicted as “little hell flames” which creates a darker and more sinister image. This contrast shows the speaker’s inner conflict and the extremely altered perception of the world around her, showing the themes of death and suicide. The main theme of the poem is emotional numbness, longing to feel something. It is shown through rhetorical devices.
Firstly, the imagery in “Little poppies, little hell flames” contrasts the delicacy of poppies with the destruction of “hell flames”, reflecting the speaker’s altered perception of the flowers as both delicate and scary. Secondly, the personification in “You flicker. I cannot touch you.” depicts the poppies as someone that cannot be touched, which emphasizes the speaker’s frustration with not being able to connect with them or even be affected by them. Lastly, there is a very important repetition in the last line of the poem, “But colourless. Colourless.” which shows the speaker’s sense of emptiness and sadness, and the failure of the poppies to give her the escape she yearns for.