In ‘The Red Room’ there is a vivid setting of a haunted house/castle described from the beginning. This vivid description effectively draws the reader into the world of the story. Even the continuous mention of the fire at the beginning of the story sets the scene of an old castle and the contrast of periods between ‘The Red Room’ and ‘A Hundred Secret Senses’ is made clear. ‘A shambling step on the flags in the passage outside.’ They key words in this extract are flags and passage because they evoke a picture of an old passage in a castle or stately home. The surroundings in ‘The Red Room’ have a profound effect on the way in which the characters behave. This is another reason why the description of the setting is so important. This is slightly different to ‘A Hundred Secret Senses because the ghosts affect the way people behave or Kwan’s stories, but not the actual setting or surroundings. In ‘The Red Room’ the legends seem to have been created by the surroundings rather than the people as they are in ‘A Hundred Secret Senses’.
Setting is very important to the story of ‘The Red Room’ to create the correct atmosphere of a haunted house. Each detail of objects, rooms and artefacts in the house is equally important. ‘The ornaments and conveniences of the room about them were ghostly.’ The author used both obvious adjectives like ‘ghostly’ in the quotation above, and more subtle descriptions to convey the fact that the castle was haunted, or appeared to be in the minds of the characters. ‘Picked out everything in vivid black shadow or silvery illumination.’ The fact that the story is set at night adds to the chilling, scary affect of the ghost story. The author also tries to convey to the reader the grandeur of the house and how wonderful it must have looked when nobody had the fear of the ghost. For example ‘a Ganymede and Eagle glistening in the moonlight.’
This is very different to ‘A Hundred Secret Senses’ because most of the sightings of ghosts are actually during the daytime and not at night, which encourages the reader to believe in ghosts and to realise that they are kind and do no harm. The setting has quite a lot to do with how the author suggests we should judge people and on what basis. It is clear from the beginning that because Kwan does not fit into her surroundings and does not seem to have adjusted very well from Chinese to American life, that the reader must make allowances when making judgements about the way she behaves and acts. “Kwan is wacky - even by San-Francisco standards.”
The novel is set in both China and America, the setting of each country being very different: in China it is set in the rural countryside, where as in America it is set in the suburbs and city life. There is not much description of America, but very detailed descriptive writing of China. ‘A village nestled between two jagged peaks, their hillsides a velvety moss-green with folds deepening into emerald.’ Jagged peaks and velvety moss green suggest an untouched side of China that has not been affected by commercialism; also emerald is a very precise use of colour. Amy Tan uses exact details to establish the correct image in the mind of the reader.
Early on and towards the middle of the novel ‘Hundred Secret Senses’, Olivia is trying to gain an understanding of the geology and geography of China in order to understand Kwan’s stories and where she and her father are from. Olivia is also experiencing the landscape of China first-hand so the reader has the image as if they were a foreigner visiting for the first time. This is a clever technique used by the author to create the setting for the reader.
The story development in ‘The Red Room’ is very effective in creating tension and sustaining the reader’s attention. As the story develops it becomes clear that the ghost story will not be as clear-cut as first expected. H G Wells challenges the reader’s perspective of ghosts, i.e. many westerners would be of a cynical Christian view that ghosts do not exist. Such views are challenged through the development of the story because from the beginning the protagonist is of the same view. But as he begins the journey to the ‘Red Room’ he begins to question himself; at the same time the reader’s mind is not at ease as it was previously and they begin to share his doubts.
By the fifth page of the book the author has successfully drawn the reader into the haunted atmosphere of the house. Just as the reader is feeling comfortable that there is nothing to be scared of in the house, their nerves are put on edge slightly. ‘Here it was, thought I, that my predecessor was found.’ ‘The memory of that story gave me a sudden twinge/I glanced over my shoulder/opened the door of the ‘Red Room’ rather hastily.’ Because the reader has been of the opinion that the central character is near indestructible and not afraid of ghosts, this puts the reader on edge. This technique used by the author keeps the reader intrigued and wanting to read on.
At the end of the first section of ‘A Hundred Secret Senses’, Olivia finishes the chapter by saying ‘ I never thought that he (Simon) too would fill my life with ghosts.’ The reader wants to read on to find out why Simon fills Olivia’s life with ghosts, whether he too has Yin eyes and how this will affect their relationship. The reader also wants to find out about whether Olivia makes a complete transformation from not believing in ghosts to accepting Kwan’s stories and believing in ghosts. “I then had to pretend the ghosts were there as part of our secret of pretending they weren’t. I
tried so hard to hold these contradictory views that soon I started to see what I wasn’t supposed to.” In the third section of the novel, most of the reader’s questions have been answered. Most importantly of all, the truth about how Olivia and Kwan’s father came to leave China is revealed. The reader finds that Olivia’s doubts were justified and Kwan was telling the truth. This brings the reader even closer to Kwan as she was telling the truth all along. The author held the suspense from the first section to the third.
It is clear from the very first paragraph of both of the stories that the theme of the books is ghosts. I chose both stories because they have similar themes; however, because ‘The Red Room’ was written much earlier there is a striking contrast between the two stories in the way that ghosts are perceived. In ‘The Red Room’ they are seen as a powerful force that the old people in particular are scared of, an evil force in the lives of good people. In ‘A Hundred Secret Senses’ the ghosts are not evil but almost seen as kind because they are friends with Kwan. Ghosts seem to be more accepted in the recent novel than they were in the pre-1900’s story.
The novel ‘A Hundred Secret Senses’ is trying to convey how people see and think of ghosts in different ways and how they affect people’s lives in good and bad ways. The main character, Olivia, narrates most of the novel. She has a strong feeling against ghosts and doesn’t want to believe Kwan’s stories. However a short way into the novel, she also sees the ghosts. ‘Her ghosts weren’t invisible like the affable TV apparitions.’ ‘Her ghosts looked alive/What I saw seemed so real, not at all like dreaming.’ These descriptions make the reader question their own beliefs. Yet again it makes them involved because previously the reader has accepted Olivia’s cynical views that Kwan’s stories are purely fictional. From this moment on in the novel, the reader is not encouraged to think about whether they believe in ghosts or not, but rather the different ways in which different people see ghosts.
Another theme of ‘The Red Room’ is perhaps not as obvious and is a subtler underlying theme to be found by the reader rather than immediately pointed out by the author. This is the difference between two different generations and how they perceive certain events and life in general. The ‘old pensioners’ seem to illustrate a wise and almost gullible side of society pre-1900. Because, although they are wise with their years of experience and are proved in some ways to be right at the end of the story, they are fairly gullible as they believe in most superstitions. The young protagonist seems to illustrate the more challenging views in society at that time. He believes that there must be another explanation for the ghosts, but is ultimately proved wrong. This shows that the younger generation is more naive but also rational in the way that they see ghosts. In a way this theme of the difference between the two generations and how they perceive things is similar to ‘A Hundred Secret Senses’. In that novel, the reader is encouraged to think about how different people see things in different ways.
As the story progresses in ‘A Hundred Secret Senses’ the reader begins to realise that the theme is not just of ghosts of the Yin world, but also about marriage and the past and why certain events occur. At the beginning of the novel the reader gets the impression that even though Olivia does not accept Kwan she is scared of her in some ways, and she makes fun of her, then eventually as she matures and grows older Olivia will learn to accept Kwan. The reader wants to read on to see how their relationship changes as the novel progresses. ‘Hating Kwan, hating myself.’ As the story comes to an end, during the trip to China, the reader realises that Kwan’s ghost stories have been a parallel to Olivia and her life. Olivia is the ghost of Miss Banner, her husband Simon is the ghost of Yibban and Kwan is Nunumu. Everything which Kwan describes in her stories is exactly or closely related to Olivia and Simon’s marriage. Family life and marriage are also a very strong theme of the novel. Olivia’s marriage ends quite early on in the novel, as she always seems to want more than she has got in Simon. Kwan is always very keen for Olivia and Simon not to divorce and for them all to go on the trip to China. The reader later realises that this is because Miss Banner and Yibban never found each other in the lost cave in China but if Olivia and Simon can reunite there, their marriage will be saved.
The characters of the novel ‘A Hundred Secret Senses,’ continuously have to live up to expectations. From the beginning Kwan does not live up to Olivia’s expectations and therefore she is not really accepted by Olivia as her sister. Olivia feels she must live up to Elsie (Simon’s previous partner who died) but she can’t be someone she is not and this results in the failure of the marriage. Simon cannot live up to Olivia’s expectations of him and does not feel as if he is enough for her. However the reader realises that Olivia was never expected by Simon to be like Elsie and she grows to love Kwan, despite resenting her at the beginning. Therefore living up to expectations and communication are also key themes in the novel.
In each story, the main characters are presented to the reader on the first page of the book. This suggests to the reader even at this early stage that these characters will be an important part of the story. In ‘The Red Room’ I particularly noticed the characterisation of ‘The Three Old Pensioners.’ The reader gets the impression that all three are very sombre and reserved. This evokes sympathy in the reader because they have obviously become this way not only through the pain of age but through the fight of their experiences in the haunted castle. The reader is encouraged to experience a range of emotions from pity to empathy in the way that most people are scared themselves of ghosts.
There is a wide range of characterisation techniques used by H G Wells to provoke these responses, but by far the most effective are the descriptions of the three old pensioners’ mannerisms and actions. ‘The old woman sat staring hard into the fire, her pale eyes wide open.’ The fact that her ‘pale eyes’ are ‘wide open’ suggests that she has on going suffering because of the ghosts and the paleness also suggests her age. “Many a thing to see and sorrow for.” This suggests that this old women is very wise and has seen much more than she has wanted to, which has brought pain into her life. Also, that she feels the main character is naïve in his ‘eight and twenty years.’ The man with the withered arm seems to be very disbelieving and stubborn. This is reflected in the sentence which he keeps repeating. ‘It’s your own choosing.’ He obviously believes that the protagonist is stupid to be going to the ‘Red Room.’ The third old pensioner ‘a man’ is described as ‘ more bent, more wrinkled and more aged even than the first.’ This suggests a very frail man. I think that he is being used to illustrate that the older generation are more likely to believe in superstition than the young man who believes himself to be more rational.
In ‘A Hundred Secret Senses it is Kwan whose character is brought to the attention of the reader through the clever characterisation techniques of Amy Tan. The quirky features of her personality and appearance are apparent from the beginning of the novel when the family first meet her. She is described as ‘a strange old lady, short and chubby, not the glamorous teenage sister I had in mind.’ This evokes empathy in the reader for Kwan by being able to associate with not living up to expectations. The reader learns to love Kwan as her odd personality becomes clearer. This is mainly through her odd mix of American language with a Chinese accent, for example when she asks ‘what ching gum?’ when referring to chewing gum. The author chooses careful descriptive language sometimes incorporating metaphors and similes to create a vivid image in the reader’s mind. For example ‘Kwan asked so many dumb questions that all the neighbourhood kids thought she had come from Mars.’
As I read both stories for the second and third times I began to realise more and more the similarities of the intentions of H G Wells compared with those of Amy Tan. They both seem to want to educate the reader about ghosts, and although they go about this in different ways because of the different times they were writing in, the intention is still the same. Another intention of H G Wells was not only to show the importance of the views of young people but also those of the older generation. I think he is trying to show that although the old people were not brought up in the protagonist’s age, they are still wise and have important views.
The main expectation of the reader is to find out what really happens in the ‘Red Room’ and if it is haunted. This expectation is definitely fulfilled. The ending is very effective because the author does not just come to the expected conclusion that there were ghosts in the room. He makes it more of a fulfilling ending as the reader expected the evil shadow in the room was a ghost but it is actually described as fear. The author achieves his intended effect by leaving the reader with deeper thoughts and consideration of their own feelings towards ghosts.
I think that the objective of Amy Tan in ‘A Hundred Secret Senses’ is to inform the reader about the different cultures of China and America, together with ghosts and the Yin world, but also to discuss the importance of relationships in families and marriage. I think that each of these objectives was successfully achieved. The reader’s expectations of a happy ending are fulfilled by Olivia and Simon’s marriage being recovered. Also, all questions which would have been raised by the reader are answered at the end of the story or through the development of the story. For example ‘Are Kwan’s ghost stories real?’, ‘Will Olivia’s marriage be saved?’, ‘Do most Chinese people in China have yin eyes?’, ‘Was Kwan telling the truth about her father?’ and other similar questions. The ending gives the reader what they want from a story because not only does it fulfil all their expectations, answer all their questions and provide them with a happy ending which sets their mind at rest, reassuring the reader that the world is not all bad, but it also has a twist to the plot when Kwan disappears and is presumed dead. Although this is sad, it leaves the reader wondering what has happened to her and it makes the novel different from others because there is not a definite close to the narrative and it almost allows the reader to create their own ending to the story.
In conclusion, although the two novels are the product of different periods and different cultures, as well as one being written by a male author and the other by a female author, they both offer a satisfying and fulfilling experience through excellent storytelling techniques that keep the reader intrigued and wanting to know more right to the end. In addition, comparing and contrasting the two texts allows an appreciation of the way in which similar themes (in this case the supernatural) can be portrayed using different narrative styles and perspectives.
