Wilson as a Narrator as Defined by Booth

Harriet E. Wilson has been one of the more emotive and complex narrators I have encountered in literature. Her style, in many ways, reminded me of C.S. Lewis in terms of voice and integration within the story. Classifying her, according to Booth’s “Types of Narration” however, has proved tricky and tedious with the various parts that apply to “Our Nig”.

Wilson’s voice is clear but her directive is spun like a tale, she creates a second persona or “second self” (Booth 151) through Frado and masks her own life story by making it Frado’s. There is a distinct difference however between the two ‘selves’ and this is what led to the conclusion of Wilson being part “Undramaticized Narrator”. She’s within the scenes of her pages, both telling and showing the story. She is not officially a character herself but is passing along the novel to us “gentle readers” (Wilson 72) via her consciousness. “…we are often as much interested in the effect on the narrator’s own mind and heart as we are in learning what else the author has to tell us.” (Booth 151) This excerpt straight from Booth is a prime explanation of Wilson as an author as defined by her personal tones as well as the characters in the story. There are many times when we can hear her own voice within the lines of text; for example the second paragraph on page 52 where there is evident sorrow and hopelessness, or the last few sentences in the last paragraph on page 14 where we find clear anger and regret. Another curious thing is how every chapter title is written in 1st person but the actual story is relatively 3rd person, this also shows her personal influence and masking as an "Undramaticized Narrator".

She also can be classified as a “Self-Conscious Narrator”, according to Booth this is qualified by an author being aware of him/herself as a writer… Wilson fully knows she's thinking, speaking, and reflecting upon her own work. There is even a part where she breaks through and reveals herself in personal 1st person before slipping back into 3rd; “A few years ago, within the compass of my narrative… Such a one appeared in the new home of Frado…” (Wilson 70). She addresses the audience as well in terms of “we”, and often creates a stage for a scene or scenario to take place.

Wilson also employs the concepts of “Privilege” and “Inside View” presented within Booth. As the author and narrator Wilson has much control over how her story is to be presented through the lens of Frado, provoking emotions and reliving experiences that no one else could know of or express. For “Privilege”, the knowledge of the narrator establishes a dynamic roundness to the story, drawing on real life supplements to satiate the hunger of complexity. For “Inside View”, Wilson provides a deep understanding of Frado’s mindset and emotional toil. There is one problem the reader must consider however, with the "Inside View" and "Privilege" concepts… We should remind ourselves that with any privilege of seeing into the mind of a character there is an increase in subjectivity without question, or how Booth puts it, “Generally speaking, the deeper our plunge, the more unreliability we will accept without loss of sympathy” (Booth 164). This basically states that the narrator can become extremely unreliable… and Wilson consequently supports this theory with her ending statements, “Refuse not, because some part of her history is unknown, save by the Omniscient God. Enough has been unrolled to demand your sympathy and aid” (Wilson 72). Simplified she says that she personally has with held some information to better her purposes.

Wilson becomes more and more complex the further we read into her work. At first it does seem like she’s just pleading for mercy and outputting her trials and emotions, but upon these theories above we can see there is a more dynamically equipped author before us. Undramaticized but Self-Conscious, with Privilege and Inside Views, along with this new understanding that she is clearly toeing the line of being unreliable to a fault. How are we to place her now? Throughout “Our Nig” Wilson was on a crusade to dispel the stereotypes and labels of African-Americans, but now as an author she is also refusing the label of a defined narrator… What are we to perceive about this new insight and awareness? Where does she fall into our understandings of narration?