The deliberate mysteriousness and ambiguity constitutes a highly suspenseful and unsettling atmosphere for the novel, and cliffhangers are in turn created in almost every single chapter, leaving readers wanting more. To establish such obscurity, Ishiguro chooses to use his protagonist, Etsuko’s memories to be the sole conduit of the story as memories is often filled with obliterations, gaps and omissions since humans are often reluctant to return to some tabooed or painful moments in life, as Etsuko herself has said in the novel, “Memories, I realize, can be an unreliable thing; often it is heavily colored by the circumstances in which one remembers, and no doubt this applies to certain of the recollections I have gathered here.” These ambiguities make the novel better for on one hand, it allows readers to go through a more authentic psychological journey with Etsuko (since the fallibility of her memory reflects the loss and sufferings that she has endured) and on the other, it creates suspense. For example, throughout the novel, Etsuko has never really directly addressed to her elder daughter, Keiko’s suicide. Whenever she thinks of Keiko’s suicide, she immediately terminates any further revealing by saying “Such thing is long in the past and I have no great wish to dwell on them”. Her relationship with Sachiko and Mariko is also highly enigmatic. Readers begin the novel assuming Etsuko and Sachiko as two totally different people, one being motherly, encompassing and caring whereas the other, cruel, indifferent and selfish, evident by their opposite reactions upon knowing Mariko being engaged in a physical fight in chapter 1. However, as the story unfolds, Sachiko’s story bears striking similarities to Etsuko’s. For instance, both have left Japan to foreign places, both are remarried and both have troubled relationship with their children. As such, Sachiko might never really be a real person at all but only a fragment of Etsuko’s imagination to project her own story so that she can shield herself from directly remembering the painful experiences. Another interpretation can be that Sachiko represents a polarized personality in Etsuko, that even though she appears to be a dutiful and subservient housewife all the times, deep down she has always had the ‘Sachiko’ instinct to break free from this defined role of woman so as to pursue for her own happiness and freedom. Given that there can be such a lot of interpretations for the novel and that a lot of mysteries are not exactly resolved even toward the end of it, “A Pale View of Hills” is indeed a very sophisticated novel which worth analysis.
As for a comparison, Curran’s “The Painted Veil” is much more straightforward and simple. With its brilliant use of cinematographic techniques, the beautiful love story between an initially ill-matched couple is captured. Unlike that in “A Pale View of Hills”, the emotions of characters is expressed explicitly in the film. For instance, when our male protagonist, Walter Fane discovers his wife, Kitty Fane’s affairs with Charlie Townsend, the camera has a few low angle shots, which means that the camera is placed lower than the subject, producing a towering form. With that, the dominance, power and authority of Walter is strengthened. Also, Curran has also deliberately positioned the characters in such a way that Kitty is sitting on the sofa whereas Walter standing, as if Kitty is a criminal confessing her wrongdoings. To further express Walter’s rage, Curran has Walter to snatch Kitty’s arm violently, which serves as a strong contrast to his previous shy and socially-awkward image. As such, Curran presents his story in a very direct and explicit way. It is good because the audiences can more easily connect with the film. Yet, when comparing “The Painted Veil” with “A Pale View of Hills”, I prefer Ishiguro’s way because Curran’s way makes the film slightly too predictable and leaves not much space for suspense.
A shared characteristic of both texts is that both Ishiguro and Curran have employed special narrative techniques to add complexities to their works. In “A Pale View of Hills”, with the effective use of the narrative technique flashback, an accomplished structure of the novel is achieved: there are two stories in the novel, one of which is nested inside the other. This allows readers to figure out what happens between now and then, strengthening the linkage between the past and present. For example, in chapter 1, we are told that it is Niki’s visit that triggers Etsuko’s reminisces. Shortly after the description about Niki’s first day of visit, the flashback of the Nagasaki comes. This suggests that mother-daughter relationship has a large role to play in Etsuko’s recollections. On top of the use of flashback, a very unique and special narrative technique is used in chapter 10. Although throughout the book there are many parallels between Etsuko’s memories of Sachiko/Mariko, readers cannot be certain of their relationship. Yet, in chapter 10, the two stories blur into one another. In the chapter, disappointed and grievous, Mariko runs away after knowing Sachiko is not going to keep her promise to stay in Japan. Then, Etsuko runs after her to the woods and says, “In any case...if you don’t like it over there, we can always come back.’ Why “we”? It is Sachiko and Mariko who are supposed to be leaving Japan. To convince readers that this is no textual error, the collective pronoun recurs four times in the next three sentences, “if you don’t like it over there, we’ll come straight back. But we have to try it and see if we like it there. I’m sure we will.’ The change of pronoun suggests a displacement of the relation between Etsuko and Keiko onto that of Sachiko and Mariko. The blending of narratives convinces readers that, Sachiko might after all, really be Etsuko. As such, the ingenious use of narrative technique is highlighted.
As in “The Painted Veil”, Curran also makes use of flashback to play with the past and present. For example, shortly after the Chinese Opera Scene in Shanghai is the scene in which Kitty is being carried in the sedan chair through the fields somewhere in rural China. This is highly symbolic: during the Chinese Opera scene, Kitty listens to Charlie’s translation of a story about a young girl who is weeping because she has been sold into a life of slavery and taken away to a foreign land. The girl is sad because she is condemned to a life in which she will never find happiness, never be loved or love in return. This seems to tell the emotions of Kitty in the next scene, which is when she is being carried in the sedan chair in China as she herself is now in a foreign land with a person that no longer loves her and who she does not love. Hence, the use of flashback reinforces in theme of the movie.
