The writing of Wayne C. Booth in “Types of Narration” presents interesting ways in which one can examine the work of Nathan Asch. In The Rhetoric of Fiction, Mr. Booth calls the attention of the reader to several examples of narration. Of these types, a number can be applied to Asch’s narrator in “In Search of America”.
Asch fits the definition of Booth’s ‘Self-Conscious Narrator’ very well. He is quite aware of himself as a writer and a narrator and he seems quite devoted to his ‘writing chores’. We know that Asch writes for a reason. This is evidenced by his statement on page 288, that he intends to write down what he finds and hopes to ‘make people so mad they’ll have to do something about it’. Although Asch does not know what to expect from the work he is doing, he is intent upon letting readers see his results, whatever they may be.
Readers may also look at Asch’s work through the lens of Booth’s ideas on ‘Scene and Summary. Asch is adept at describing the attitudes he encounters through dialogue but also through accounts of environment and setting. Although Asch uses dialogue to highlight the attitudes of those he meets, his picture of the men in the ‘oil-filthy seats’ of the Number 110 is no less expository (Asch 301). The fact that Asch uses dialogue, as well as picture in his writing may rule out its possibility to be viewed in this category by some. However, Asch is an effective descriptive writer, be it of scene or discourse.
Another strikingly applicable instance in Booth’s essay can be found on page 157, in which he describes the way in one can see ‘a narrator changing as he narrates’. The narrator of Asch’s work, who readers may assume is Asch, himself, seems to have a quite positive outlook upon ‘America’ and it’s people in the beginning of his story. However, by the end of the work, the narrator has seen so much of the downtrodden and hopeless that the attitudes he witnesses begin to repeat themselves and he sees more and more of what seems to be an almost total corruption of America. For example, Asch meets humans who ‘hate the people they rob’ more than once (Asch 305). In turn readers may sense the sad change that is thrust upon Asch’s narrator by way of reality and perhaps feel the change in their selves as well.
Any way to view Asch’s writing may be found to be flawed, however; each new way we look at the narration may uncover something that adds to what we understand.
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Additional “Types of Narration” that can be found in “In Search of America”
ReplyDeleteAlthough there is certainly evidence of both the ‘Self Conscious Narrator’ and ‘Scene and Summary’ in Asch’s “In Search of America” there are several other of Wayne C. Booth’s narrative techniques at work throughout the piece.
In this piece, Asch’s narrator provides several of what Booth describes ‘Inside Views’ into the everyday lives of the characters that are met. By supplying these examples, it allows readers to learn and understand the struggles of working America. Booth states in “The Rhetoric of Fiction” that narrators can “provide inside views [that] differ in the depth and the axis of their plunge” (163). This allows Asch to focus in on particular aspects of characters lives that he deems most important and that will draw adequate sympathy from readers. It is the narrator’s goal to present enough information regarding the lives of the lower class that readers will sympathize with them and hopefully, “make people so mad they’ll have to do something about it” (Asch 288). Asch’s narrator explores the lives of the people he meets, while simultaneously providing the reader with detailed knowledge of their daily lives and exploiting the truth about American working conditions.
In addition to the ‘Inside Views’, Asch also utilizes Booth’s method of ‘Variations of Distance’. It is stated in “The Rhetoric of Fiction” that the narrator “may differ morally, intellectually, and temporally” from the characters in the story (156). In Asch’s piece, it is clear that the narrator is distant from other characters temporally and in some cases intellectually. At one point, the narrator states that he misses the “pleasant mornings in New England” (Asch 289). Not only does this show geographical distance, but also that the narrator never stays with the characters he meets for a long period of time. The sole purpose for the narrators visits to the squalors of working America is to research and report about their lives, not because he, himself, is struggling for work. The distance between Asch’s narrator and the characters in the story allow for more detailed reflections about the unseen way of life.
Aspects of Mr. Booth’s narrative techniques are clearly at work in “In Search of America” and undoubtedly add to the complexity and understanding of the piece.