African American Literature (Harmen Alleyne)

Beloved does some interesting things with the perspective and framing of events depending on which character is experiencing/experienced them. Sethe's rememory is probably one of the most interesting narrative choices in this novel, very reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five 's Tralfamadorian time travel. This kind of framing for narratives can make some stories very confusing, but in Beloved  it helps to feed us information. The constant jumping around focuses the story not on advancing a plot, but building the characters and the setting they inhabit. This is a good tactic for building characters, as the narrative jumps around to each person's perspective in turn. Certain events are played on repeat but from different angles. I would be interested to see how this would work in a film adaptation. Would the directors use camera angles? Would there have to be separate arcs for each character? I've seen this done in a few other works where the narrative

I've said it once and I'll say it again. Their Eyes Were Watching God  seems to me like an archetypal 19th Century British novel. Something about how the prose is structured and the events played out seemed exactly like the events we would read about in 19th Century. There are multiple suitors and each one the main character sees something in them but then they end up not liking a few of them until they meet the one they decide is right for them. Then they get into some trouble with this "perfect" suitor and this problem carries the rest of the plot. The arranged marriage also is very reminiscent of the stifling atmosphere of 19th century novels. Towards the end of the book it becomes a more modern piece (because it starts with a marriage and ends with no partner as opposed to the reverse in 19th century novels), as well as having a more progressive feminist message. Still, some deep dark part of me has a traumatic fit whenever I think of Pride and Prejudice .