Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The Protagonist
Did it bother anyone else that the name of the main protagonist is never revealed? It seemed like he was inundating us with all these details about everyone who lived in this town, almost to the point where it was hard to keep who was who straight, but we never know the name of the main character in the story. I suppose it makes sense, given the story is from his perspective, and I also think it adds to the mysterious feel of the story, but it still was the one thing that bothered me when I got to the end.
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Yes, a little. But as you mentioned that he was the one giving the complex details of the citizens, the simple anonymity of his character might be working in contrast to all the specifics. Also the journal is for suspects, and who considers themself a suspect when they are little. Thus, that method of telling about himself is eliminated.
ReplyDeleteI did not even realize that till now. I was so interested in what he was saying that I never noticed that his name is not mentioned. I did think there was going to be more to Mr. White. The way it starts at the beginning with Sister Joe talking to Jim I thought maybe he was going to be the devil or the anti-Christ (maybe I need to stop watching movies like The Omen and Rosemary's Baby). At the end though I felt like Mr. White just fell short of what I thought he was going to be.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering if Ford didn't name the protagonist because maybe he felt it would remove some of the personal appeal the character had. If he named him, it would have changed the identity. This is all speculation but from the quote Natalie's post it seems he wanted to keep it personal and had a hard time separating from his memoir-ish draft. Maybe he wasn't wanting to remove himself from the story(parts of his youth)?
ReplyDeleteI agree, I really thought that Mr. White would have a little more going for when the end of the book came around. Since Ray was a ghost, I figured it couldn't have been too hard to add in a little more fantasy. Mr. White also fell a little short after how he affected Pop and the dog tattoo. Even with less fantasy in the end, I really enjoyed this book and felt like for the most part it gave what it needed to for the story to have resolution in the end.