The Storm: An Inner Reflection Essays -- Emotions Psychology Essays

The Storm An Inner ReflectionMemories are all we have sometimes, only if what if memories bring out unwelcome feelings? In Romesh Gunesekeras short story Ranvali, a young lady goes back to her fathers old holiday bungalow and begins to chance on new feelings toward her beloved Communist father. The story is set in an idyllic bungalow in Ranvali, by the coast of India. Theorists such as Roland Barthes would bespeak that setting in modern narratives no longer need meaning they simply are that is their meaning. (qtd in Chatman 145). However, in Ranvali, the wedge that besieges the bungalow piece of music the young lady is there clearly mimics her thoughts and gives the reader a great sense of the inner turmoil that she must be going through. It cigaret consequently be shown that the storm is an essential part of the setting that Gunesekera wonts to have words certain feelings in the readers of Ranvali.In the story, the storm mimics the narrators inner turmoil at discovering n ew feelings about her father. But is the storm part of setting? Chatman makes a distinction between existents - characters and setting. For Chatman, setting sets the character off it is the place and collection of objects against which his actions and passions fitly emerge (Chatman 134). The storm is part of the description of the place where the story unfolds. The memories of the narrators father, which may be considered the actions and passions within the story, emerge before and after the occurrence of the storm. The storm is hence part of the background to which the events in Ranvali occur. Chatman also gives three criteria for being a character - presence, being named and importance (Chatman 139). The storm in Ranvali is clearly non explicitly... ...der is given a definite analogy to how she might be feeling. Gunesekeras use of this narrative device as opposed to using the narrator to draw and quarter her emotions makes the reader sympathetic to the narrators plight in an a lmost unconscious way. Although the storm is part of the setting, it subconsciously draws a connection to the narrators inner thoughts. The reader thus can imagine that a storm rages within her mind, with thoughts about her fathers noble-mindedness conflicting with her love for him. Without this narrative device of the storm, the story would have been a great deal impoverished, as the final effect of Ranvali would have been much reduced. Works CitedChatman, Seymour, Existents falsehood and Discourse Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca Cornell UP, 1978. 131-145. Gunesekera, Romesh. Ranvali. Monkfish Moon. capital of the United Kingdom Granta, 1992 89-102.