B. Interpretation
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 520.
Get ready to interpret the text. Focus on the issues below:
· The type of narrative, the form of presentation, the choice of the point of view from the perspective of “jazz-like” narration
Identify the type of the narrator. Pay attention to the shifts in the narrative perspective, e. g. from the limited omniscient narrator presenting Joe and Violet's point of view to that one focusing on the man's standpoint.
What type of description (static, dynamic, panoramic, general view, close-up) is prevalent in the extract? How does it account for the general stylistic effect of the extract?
· The image of New York
Focus on the following fragment of the text:
“He forgets a sun that used to slide up like the yolk of a good country egg, thick and red-orange at the bottom of the sky, and he doesn't miss it, doesn't look up to see what happened to it or to stars made irrelevant by the light of thrilling, wasteful street lamps.”
What does the simile “like the yolk of a good country egg” intimate about the pleasures of the countryside? Find some other stylistic means used to compare and contrast urban and rural living.
Comment on the following idea from the text: “There is no air in the City but there is breath (...).” Pay attention to the way the life rhythm of urban and rural areas is presented in the extract. Is there a parallelism between the textual rhythm and jazz rhythms?
· The image of the woman
What stylistic means are employed to reconstruct the image of the woman in the City? Focus on the syntactic patterns employed.
II. Offer your interpretation of the extract. Pay special attention to the techniques the author applies to depict the City. Think of the way the novel mirrors the music of its title. Exchange your ideas with the other members of your group.
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