Furthermore, adult Stephen remains for all of chapter one . Prior to this, adult Stephen observes himself, when he was young in 3rd person “this is what I see as I look at it now… I mean the awkward boy who lives in that unkempt house between the Hardiments and the Pinchers – Stephen Wheatley” this creates a visualizing atmosphere and the reader can picture what adult Stephen is observing, he is reflecting on how he was as a child which some adults like to do. This creates an effect of closeness with the reader, and has perceptive.
However, the narration of adult Stephen can be unreliable because during the narration he questions himself and confirms his memory on what he remembers therefore the reader cannot fully entrust what adult Stephen is saying, a quotation to show this is “ No, wait. I’ve got that wrong. ” This shows that Frayn has created ambiguity in the sense on leaving the reader on suspense.
In contrast to the narration, the reader also has to live up to the thoughts of younger Stephen. Frayn has balanced the ambiguity as both narrations are unreliable because younger Stephen is a child and children tend to exaggerate their emotions “Mr Gort… was a murderer. But then, when we investigated, we found some of the bones of his victims in the waste ground…” children like to exaggerate and this is just younger Stephen expressing his feelings about a member of the close.
Moreover, when younger Stephen narrates the story, Frayn uses delayed revelation to build up suspense for the reader “avert the catastrophe, I can feel looming, though what that catastrophe might be I don’t know” this implies that Frayn is making a cataphoric reference because the reader has been told about an event which has not yet happened.
Also, Stephen shows that he has matured and realises that the game they have been playing is not a game anymore “The story has changed tack, like a ship altering course” this creates an effect of age as the reader can now understand that younger Stephen is becoming a adult. Games are children’s play and younger Stephen can feel this change therefore the reader reads this part in 1st person to give the reader a sense of reading it as if it were happening in the present whereas this has already happened and is being referred to as memory.
In addition, at the start of chapter 3, younger Stephen begins telling the story from his point of view, so it starts off in 1st person and also in present tense, “So, she’s a German spy. How do I react to the news?” this makes the reader engage into what younger Stephen says because the story is being told as it is happening and it grabs the reader’s attention in the centre to find out what the truth is and also to reveal an event which ahs occurred, and the reader finds out as adult Stephen is telling the story.
Frayn also makes false impressions in order to show how younger Stephen evolves into adult Stephen and how Stephen makes this jump from childhood to puberty and references are made to puberty when Frayn uses “the moon” symbolises age and sexuality therefore he is growing up and the dual narration shows a huge effect on the reader in conveying this.
Finally, the whole dual narration creates a puzzle for the reader as adult Stephen himself is trying to work out by piecing together the missing bits of his life and he links them to his emotions, Frayn uses catharsis to purge his emotions and recollect his childhood “The source of all my great unrest is this: plain ordinary privet” the spelling of ‘privet’ is actually used here to delay revelation of what will happen next. The irony of this type of narrative is that Frayn has mixed the tenses completely which has a huge impact and makes the reader enjoy the whole mystery of the novel.
The purpose of this essay was to see how dual narration affects the level of understanding on the novel. I believe that dual narration is an interesting way to write a novel, as it isn’t biased, it shows both sides of one character and that is very intriguing. Conversely, you can confuse the narrative very easily as Frayn likes to use ellipsis to create a puzzling effect, which the reader can only solve by reading on. Therefore, dual narration is very effective and Frayn conveys it wonderfully.
By Olima Aktar 12MR
