The Tattooist is written in the third person view but through the tattooist’s eyes, and how he would be seeing it. Some authors like to use more original techniques to highlight characters strengths and weaknesses. This is true when it comes to The Tattooist. Understanding, knowledge and vocabulary is used to try and involve the reader and help you understand how the characters are feeling.
The story has a good vocabulary; an example of this would be “He wore his history on his arms” which shows he has tattoos on his arms that express what has happened in his life and how his life was. When a few young city girls enter the proud country tattooists shop, he feels unsecure around them “Self consciously he pulled down the sleeves on his shirt” he does this so they will not see his tattoo’s and laugh at him, like he believes they will.
The shop owner believes he understands their type, “Girls from the inner city who never ventured this far into the country unless they were on a dare.” He believes they do not understand his way of living and see him as some loser “They never looked at him and he learnt his place in the world.” Expressing that he feels like he does not belong around them.
Towards the end of the book he develops an understanding for them and realises not all inner city people are the typical people and the girls do respect his work. One of the girls asks for a tattoo and he goes to decline the question until he sees the design she drew. The Tattooist and the city girl develop a thorough understanding for each other when she asks if he knows what they mean. He replies “Lest we forget” as he lets his hand relax into hers, showing that they have now understood where each other are coming from and he no longer believes them to be the girls he thought they were.
The Second Hand Tongue is written in the third person view and uses humour and understanding to involve the readers and to show the strengths and weaknesses of the characters. The author does this by making the main character in the story say humorous things and attract the readers to keep them laughing. The story is written how a teenager would write it, using slang and saying things only a teenager would “This one’s absolutely useless: I’ve worked it to death” to attract the younger age group of readers.
The Second Hand Tongue is based on a boy who never stopped talking to the point he over worked his tongue, to the point he can’t use it anymore. At the start of the story the young boy is very demanding and has no respect for others. He has to get a new tongue which makes him not talk over others and be disrespectful because he got a tongue from an “astronomer who was stationed at an isolated observatory” so now all he could do is listen to others. He has to wait a whole year before he can get a new tongue and throughout that year period he develops an understanding for others and his whole outlook on life changes.
Towards the end of the story the year is over and he can finally get a new tongue, but he no longer wants a tongue like he used to have. He wants an ever day normal one that he can use. The tongue dealer believes he has the perfect tongue for him “Hang on. Something did come in the other day that might suit you” after the tongue transplant the narrator uses humour when the young boy thanks the tongue dealer for the transport by saying “Wolf! Wolf!”
Rory is told in the first person narration. The author uses the techniques of knowledge and figurative language to show the characters strengths and weaknesses. An example of this would be when the narrator says “My brother was sick for ages, then all of a sudden it happened. He died” The narrator is putting you in the brothers shoes from the very first sentence to keep you involved in the story and showing you how terrible it is. Everyone felt bad for Rory and thought that he was a perfect child. Rory’s brother felt bad about his brother Rory dying but also did not see his brother like everyone else did.
The story is written on the view of the brother of Rory, who died. The boy believes his dead brother is not the person everyone thought he was, stating “Rory was no saint, though most people outside the family thought he was” suggesting that if people really got to know him they wouldn’t like the real person he is. Rory looked like the sort of innocent, perfect child to everyone, this is expressed by the narrator saying “He was as frail as matchsticks, his skin was like white powder, and I swear every time I saw him his eyes were bigger.” showing the weakness of the character.
Rory’s brother did seem upset that people thought his brother was such a saint and always didn’t pay attention to him, but at the same time he has a weakness about him, he really does love his brother, this was expressed the best in the last paragraph saying “He wasn’t perfect. He wasn’t easy to love. He wasn’t easy to kiss either, a lot of times I hated him. There’s nothing perfect about me either. But God, it hurt when he died.” Showing that no matter how mad he was he still loves and misses his brother Rory.
In the 4 stories; The Second Hand Tongue, Tri, Rory and The Tattooist you can clearly state the strengths and weaknesses in each story and can understand the message the author is trying to get across. Each of the four authors used different techniques in their stories which worked in their own unique way. Some of the ways ranged from Humour to figurative language.
