The Third-Person Narration in "Our Nig".

In "Our Nig", we can consider Frado different character from the author Harriet Wilson in spite of the fact that it is mentioned that "In writing Frado's heartbreaking story, Harriet Wilson recounts her own experiences while combing and subverting multiple literary styles" in the back of this novel. Why can we consider that Frado is independent character who differs from the author? I believe the reason why is based on that Wilson uses the third person as a narrator in this story.

It is true that Wilson reflects her own experience and the circumstance at that time into the figure of Frado. In the introduction of this book, we can see the fact that "Sleeping in alternately stifling and freezing quarters, being overworked to the point of exhaustion, and enduring depressing isolation were the norms in service. As a young black child indentured to a white family in a town that only a handful of blacks called home, Wilson experienced a fate even worse than the typical northern indenture" (p. xxvii). Like these statements, Wilson reflects her own experience exactly in this book's world view and into the figure of Frado. However, even after we read these statements, we can consider that Frado is separate from Wilson in terms of the view of independence as a character, and a woman.

The way to narrate in this book is clearly by the third person. Furthermore, it cannot be considered by Wilson herself such as Marji in Persepolis. That is, although it is the fact that she reflects her own experience in the story, nobody in the book cannot be identified as Wilson even the narrator of third person and Frado. Then we can use the interpretation of "Variations of Distance" by Wayne C. Booth. In Types of Narration, Booth explains that "The narrator may be more or less distant from the implied author" and "most authors are distant from even the most knowing narrator in that they presumably know how "everything turns out in the end" (p. 156). That is, the method of narration by the third person causes a distance from Wilson to Frado, and the narrator. The narrator in this story is also written as if the third person knows every development of the story. However, although the development of the story is similar to Wilson's experience, the entire story is different exactly from the Wilson's life, especially the end of main character, Frado. Then, the difference would cause the distance between the author and the character. Because of the distance, I believe that we can consider Frado is independent character from the author, Wilson.