Commentary on Centre Stage

Authors Avatar

Stephanie Gadsby Yr12 English lit/ Lang Mrs Grenville

Commentary on Centre Stage.

In my short story called Centre Stage, I have attempted to use the style of writing to James Joyce.  Joyce wrote elliptically in his collection of short stories called “Dubliners”. He does this to suggest to the reader of what is happening but is never explicit with his suggestions so the reader is lead to make their own decision.  Using that style, I wanted to make the reader use their imaginations as to what happens in some places of the story so everything is not just there upon the page for them, they can interpret the message and suggestions as and how they wish. As in “An Encounter” in Joyce’s’ collection Dubliners, I manipulated what I allowed the reader to see and gain full access to.  “An Encounter” uses a first person narrative but also conceals some things from the reader so I used a third person narrative to assist me leading the reader to a suggestion then concealing it by taking the omniscient narrator’s perspective of events away. In “An Encounter”, when the two boys are together with the man, the boy who is narrating tells the reader how he looked away at one point so the reader is left to think of what occurred in that space when he not only shield himself from what happened but the reader as well.  

“A rush of the crowd concealed whatever happened next.”

Join now!

Joyce uses the technique of telling the story through the protagonist’s stream of consciousness thus allowing the reader to be able to feel a much more intimate connection with them. The use of this is less fairytale like than using an all present all seeing narrator but can equally be used to lead the reader and manipulate what they think. I chose to use a third person all seeing, all present narrator because it seems to be a reliable source that is telling the story. Everything is stated so assures the reader that it is a fact inside the ...

This is a preview of the whole essay