Q1 of 15 Page 145

Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of narration: one, where the reader would remain aware of some outside voice telling him/her what’s going on; two, a narration that seeks to reproduce, without the narrator’s intervention, the full spectrum and continuous flow of a character’s mental process. Which of these is exemplified in this essay? Illustrate.

‘The mark on the wall’ is a perfect example of Virginia Woolf’s ‘Stream of Consciousness’, Which is a narration that seeks to reproduce, without the narrator’s intervention, the full spectrum of and continuous flow of a character’s mental process. Throughout the story, the narrator centered her interpretations of the mark that she sees on the wall while smoking a cigarette sitting on a chair from some distance. In this process of solving the mystery behind the mark, the narrator comes up with a collection of vast unconnected thoughts and opinions. These thoughts persuade the reader to think and stimulate his/her mental process. The flood of thoughts that the mark provokes in the narrator’s mind is so un-relatable to the actual reason behind the mark- the snail.


More from this chapter

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2

‘Tablecloths of a different kind were not real tablecloths’. Does this sentence embody the idea of blind adherence to rules and tradition? Discuss with reference to ‘Understanding Freedom and Discipline’ by J. Krishnamurti that you’ve already read.

 3

According to the author, nature prompts action as a way of ending thought. Do we tacitly assume that ‘men of action are men who don’t think’?

 2

This essay frequently uses the non-periodic or loose sentence structure: the component members are continuous, but so loosely joined, that the sentence could have easily been broken without damage to or break in thought. Locate a few such sentences, and discuss how they contribute to the relaxed and conversational effect of the narration.

 1

(i) Can you say which words are content words in the examples below, and which are function words? All the examples are from the text in this unit.

(ii) Can you name the kind of word (its category as a noun, pronoun, etc.?). A dictionary may help you to do this. You can work for inpairs or groups, discussing the reasons for your analysis.


(a) Ants carry a blade of straw so feverishly and then leave it.


(b) They wanted to leave this house because they wanted to change their style of furniture.


(c) I don’t believe it was made by a nail after all; it’s too big, too round, for that.


(d) There was a rule for everything.


(e) The tree outside the window taps very gently on the pane.