Chapter 8 point of view

Don't think that if the lady doesn't visit after a while, she won't behave differently-she always walks in excitedly, and leaves after a short pause.During her short stay she seemed to be able to survey everything in the room, from the ceiling to the toe of her daughter's boot, always with a lot of intent in her survey.Sometimes she sat down, sometimes she walked up and down, but whether she was sitting or walking, she always had a high-spirited, business-like posture.She regretted many things, so she left behind many expectations; she seemed to be spreading compensation and promises.At each visit, she dressed as if she were traveling, and her manner, Mrs. Weeks said, was like a curtain.She went to extremes—sometimes she barely paid attention to the child, and other times she held the baby in her arms.Mrs. Weeks also noticed that the front collar of her dress was cut very low.She always came and went in a hurry, and the lower the collar was opened, the more hurriedly she walked.Usually she came alone and unexpectedly, but sometimes Sir Claude accompanied her.Their companionship was always delightful at first, especially when, as Mrs. Weeks said, Mrs. Bewitched. "How captivating she is!" Maisie sighed thoughtfully, whenever Sir Claude pulled her mother away, and her mother dropped a string of happy laughter.She had never heard her mother laugh so well, in the days when women laughed so hard at happy things.Now she could see that her mother was happy in this marriage, and she hoped to be happy at last—the only hope of this unworldly little girl was to wish for good things, to play and play as much as she wanted someday.

Henry James, What Messi Knows (1897) No matter what kind of event, there will usually be more than one person experiencing it, of course at the same time.A novel can describe the same event from different points of view—but only from the same point of view at a time.Even if the "omniscient" narrative method is used to report an event from the height of an omniscient and omnipotent God, the usual practice is to authorize one or two characters to narrate the story from their own point of view. development, and mainly about events in relation to them.Absolutely objective and impartial narration may be the goal that should be respected when writing news or compiling history, but as far as fiction is concerned, if it is to be interesting, it must explain to the reader the characters involved in the story.

From this point of view, deciding from which point of view to tell the story is the most important decision in the novelist's creation, because it directly affects the reader's reaction to the characters and their actions in the novel, whether the reaction is emotional or moral. .For example, in a story about adultery—any adultery—the narrator could be the unfaithful party, or the injured spouse, or the lover—or someone who knew.Depending on the point of view of the narrative, it affects us differently.If it were told from the point of view of Charles Bovary, I am afraid that it would become a completely different book.

Henry James is masterful in capturing point of view.In "What Macy Knows," he paints the story of multi-layered adultery—or adultery masked by divorce and remarriage—with the task of telling it all through what a child sees and hears the child is both affected by these events and at the same time completely ignorant of them.The father had an affair with the governess, which led to the divorce of the mother; the father eventually married the governess.After her mother Ida married Sir Claude, an admirer who was a few years younger than her, she was handed over to another tutor, Mrs. Weeks, to look after her.Before long, stepfather and stepmother became lovers again.Messi is used by these selfish and immoral adults, becoming a tool for their quarrels and a medium for romantic love affairs.The grown-ups have fun and confine her in a dreary school, accompanied by the slovenly Mrs. Weeks, who is only older than she and is also madly infatuated with Sir Claude.

This paragraph is selected from the beginning of the book. It tells that Ida made many wishes to Messi during her second marriage and honeymoon, promising to improve Messi's life, but none of them were fulfilled.The story is told from Macy's point of view - but not in her own voice, nor does it mimic children's language.James Tu stated the reasons for this in the "Foreword" of the "New York Edition": "Although children cannot speak clearly, their senses, visions, and understandings are far richer than what they can express in words. sharper, deeper." Thus, stylistically, What Messi Knows is quite different: the narrator of this work is a naive child, but the delivery method is that of a mature adult--language with elegance, twists and turns. subtle.

What is described in the book is what Macy witnessed with her own eyes, and in her naive words, it is all she can understand.Mom makes some exciting decisions to renovate her school and get a new wardrobe.Ida's visits were sudden and brief, and her behavior was erratic.Every time I come here, I always dress up beautifully, and I stop by to have a look on the way to a social gathering.She seemed to love her new husband very much and was in a good mood.All of this was observed by Messi, with accurate observations and naive ideas.She still has faith in her mother and looks forward with hope to "play and play as much as I want someday".The reader is under no illusions, however, because the language describing these naive thoughts is serious and profound, and the behavior of Ida is full of irony and sarcasm.

The first sentence of this paragraph reflects the characteristics of non-children's language.The sentence uses passive voice at the beginning, followed by a double negative sentence; the words are large and abstract, and the structure is symmetrical and beautiful.The whole sentence structure is what grammarians call a drop-off sentence—in other words, the reader has to gather all the information and wait for the decisive clause at the end to deliver the main message (i.e. Ida is only concerned with showing off).This feature makes readers feel that reading James Tu's works is very laborious, but the benefits are great: if you think that the conclusion has come out before reading a sentence, you can be sure, then you are very wrong.

This paragraph reflects the author's preference for parallel dual sentences, and it is used appropriately. "Sometimes she sits down, and sometimes she walks up and down." "She regrets a lot, so she leaves a lot of expectations after she leaves." Like a curtain, says Mrs. Weeks." These clever antitheses allude to Ida's double-faced character: making empty promises but not keeping them; selfish in appearances of generosity. One of the most common pitfalls of awkward or immature novelists is inconsistency in point of view.For example, in a story about John as the narrator recounts his first departure from home for college—John packs his travel bag, takes one last look at the bedroom, says goodbye to his parents—and suddenly, just a few In the next sentence, the author recounts his mother's thoughts, because he seems to think that this information will be interesting to insert here.The point of view of the narrative then shifts to John himself.Of course, there is no rule that novels are not allowed to change the point of view, but if it breaks away from the aesthetic rules or rules, it will cause confusion and hinder the participation of readers and the "generation" of textual meaning.We may consciously or unconsciously think, since we have explained what John’s mother thinks to us here, why not explain it elsewhere?The mother was originally the object in John's perception, but suddenly jumped into the subject representing himself, and this transformation was not complete.Moreover, since the mother's point of view appears, why is there no father's point of view?

In fact, keeping the narrative angle strictly to one person can strengthen the theme and increase the sense of immediacy—James is convinced of this.He deftly uses Mrs. Weeks to convey adult comments about Ida that Macy is not yet able to make, without changing Macy's narrative point of view.Her assessment of Ida's demeanor as a curtain, which Macy interprets as a compliment to her mother, is interpreted by readers as scathing criticism.Similarly, Mrs. Weeks was both jealous and immoral when she saw Ida bare-chested; Macy saw no eroticism about women's bare breasts, only the length of her mother's visit and the clothes The ratio between the height of the front collar and the height has been realized.

When the story develops to the later stage, Messi gradually grows from childhood to teenager, and the hazy feeling replaces the innocence.She has some awareness of the relationship between adults, but the gap between words and viewpoints has not been eliminated.What exactly Messi knows remains a mystery.Keats said: "Beauty is truth." The great Russian semiotician Yuli Lautman said: "Beauty is information." This principle is more in line with modern people's minds.Henry James, the English language's first truly modern novelist, did not believe in establishing ultimate truths about human experience, yet he developed a technique of writing fiction that spread information everywhere.