The language used in The Foal is the total opposite to that used in The Perfect Murder. The language is descriptive with attention drawn to small detail such as what the ladle the commander is making looks, smells and feels like and paints a very vivid picture of the setting, characters and, distinctly, the war. This attention to detail brings the reader into the story and encourages them to hear, see, smell and feel what the characters of the story are feeling. However the reader is brought to feel a certain way by the use of description of setting and plot, not by Sholokhov’s description of what characters are actually feeling. The fact that the character’s feelings are not described also emphasises the unfeeling, cold and harsh nature of the war and gives a contrast to the values and attitudes presented in the text so as to emphasise them. For example, when Trofim attempts to shoot the foal during the battle scene, ‘his hand may have trembled in his agitation, or possibly there was some other reason for his missing’. This sentence does not actually describe how Trofim is feeling, nor does it say how he feels towards the foal, but there is enough indication for the reader to understand his feelings and be encouraged to feel them as well. This, along with the attention to small detail and description of the setting and plot, position the reader to accept the attitudes and values presented in the text.
Another technique used by authors is setting. The setting of ‘the children’s playground in the park’ with children playing, trees, sunshine and birds singing used in The Perfect Murder contrast the deadly intentions of the main character. This positions the reader to be shocked into confronting their attitudes towards murder and rejecting the main character’s attitude towards it so that when the attitudes change at the end of the text, the reader is positioned to accept the author’s view that murder can be acceptable.
Similarly, the setting in The Foal contrasts the values and attitudes presented in the text. This makes them stand out, thus positioning the reader to accept these values and attitudes. For example, the opening paragraph gives an extreme contrast between the values and attitudes and the setting. The story opens with a foal being born ‘in broad daylight’ however the light aspect and mood of the story quickly changes when ‘terror (is) the first feeling he experience(s) on this earth’ caused by an explosion nearby. This sudden change in the story positions the reader to sympathise with The Foal and accept Sholokhov’s attitudes and values towards war, murder, life and living.
Characterisation is another technique used by the authors of prose fiction. The main character in The Perfect Murder is developed as a caring and loving mother. However, ‘she could be cruel…utterly heartless, at times even merciless’. She thinks of the murder as necessary and it is made clear that she has accomplished the deed before. Her feelings towards the murder are clinical, heartless and ritualistic, as though it is a routine for her to kill. Yet she is still anxious about leaving her children alone for any length of time and nervous about performing the murder. So nervous, in fact that she can’t sleep can’t eat and has violent nightmares. Yet while the character’s thoughts are preoccupied with the killing and ‘her heart pounded in anticipation’, she shows ‘no outward manifestation of her design’ when ‘casually she walked among the children’ in the playground and ‘greeted them serenely’. The contrast between how the character is feeling and how she is acting bring the reader into her thoughts and give an impression of her heartless, thoughtless yet anxious approach to the killing. This positions the reader to dislike the main character and reject their values, attitudes and morals. However, when the change in the story comes in the closing paragraph, the reader is then positioned to now confront their own morals, values and attitudes so that they can easily accept the ones that the author is presenting in the text.
Opposite to in The Perfect Murder, the characters thoughts and feelings are not presented in The Foal. This gives an indication that due to the war, the characters have no feelings left, however this is disproved by the fact that the characters can not bring themselves to ‘liquidate the foal’. The actions of the characters such as Trofim’s position the reader to agree with the values, attitudes and morals of the author. For example, the Trofim makes the excuse that his gun is broken when he goes to kill the foal, when really there are no cartridges in it. These actions and also his actions at the end of the text, when he risks his own life to save the foal’s only to be killed anyway, show to the full extent the attitudes, values and morals presented in the text.
Finally, authors use point of view to position the reader to feel a certain way towards a subject. The point of view used in The Perfect Murder is third person subjective. This allows the reader into the mind of the main character in the story. This has been done so that the reader experiences in their mind what the character is experiencing. In The Perfect Murder, this has been done so that the reader is positioned to reject the main character’s values, morals and attitudes towards murder so that they are then positioned to accept the values, attitudes and morals of the author presented at the end of the text.
The point of view used in The Foal is that of third person objective. This does not allow the reader into the mind or thoughts of any character, but simply gives an objective view of the story. In The Foal, this has been done so that the characters are presented as no longer having feelings because of the war. The characters’ actions also stand out because of this point of view. The reader is invited to interpret the actions of the characters, however they are positioned by the author to interpret the characters as having feelings that have simply been forgotten and are no longer allowed by the characters to be felt. This positions the reader to sympathise with the characters presented, especially the character of Trofim, thus positioning them to accept the author’s values, attitudes and morals.
In conclusion, authors of prose fiction not only inject their own values, attitudes and morals into a story but will often attempt, through the use of various techniques, to position the reader to feel a certain way towards a subject. The authors of The Perfect Murder and The Foal have done so through the use of techniques such as language, setting, characterisation and point of view, among many others.
