Write with Detailed Reference to at Least Three Stories and Show how Jane Gardam Reveals the Extraordinariness of Ordinary People Essay Example

Write with Detailed Reference to at Least Three Stories and Show how Jane Gardam Reveals the Extraordinariness of Ordinary People Essay Jane Gardam uses a variety of writing styles to give the characters and narrators a sense of extraordinariness. She does this, for example, through her choice of language that gives life to the characters. Three stories in this collection that show this are The First Adam, Stone Trees and An Unknown Child.One of the ways in which Jane Gardam explores the unusual features of every day people is the use of narrative voice, in first or third person. The First Adam, is a story of a man named Bull. After finding retirement boring, Bull returned to work in Drab. The analogy of the orang-outang is a symbol of Bulls lonely life, which also comes across through the use of monologue throughout the story. The audience are first introduced to Bulls extraordinary way of life when he uses the phrase My tender mistress to describe his work. This story is written using a first person narrator and so he expresses his own thoughts and feelings to the reader. This is useful for the reader as they are s eeing exactly the same as Bull and so gain an understanding of the way he views Drab, his work and his life.This is similar to the style chosen for Stone Trees which is about the narrator, her life and told using stream of consciousness. The story starts on a journey to the Isle of Wight where the reader realise that her husband has recently died. One of the most important points of this story is the narrator repeatedly telling the audience that she did not want children but she discovers that her husband already had a son. This is shown through the line so now that you are which suggests that she understands that her husband lives on in the boy. Throughout the story, the narrator often uses you/I to show her views about Anna, Tom, her husband and their situation through the stream of consciousness. Having a first-person narrator explaining the situation, as she perceives it, means that the reader can discover traits about Anna and Tom, the narrator and her husband and the reader ca n share in her moment of realisation towards the end of the story. The extraordinariness of ordinary people is shown in this story in the way that the narrator copes with the death of her husband and finding out that he had a son that she did not know about.In contrast to this, a story written in the third person such as An Unknown Child is about a woman who has had had a mis-carriage and about how her and her husband try to rebuild their lives. After an incident in a restaurant, Evelyn and Mick finally begin to grieve for the loss of their own child. The third person narrator lets us find out about the lives of a few different characters which have important roles in the story such as Evelyn, Mick and Elizabeth. This shows the extraordinariness of apparently regular people by giving the reader an image of the characters, showing their moments of self-realisation and their interactions with the other characters.A very important technique used by Jane Gardam in these three stories to reveal the extraordinary nature of the people is a central symbol or metaphor which is carried throughout the story. The most obvious of these is the symbol of children in An Unknown Child. For example, on the journey to Florence, A baby had watched them and the place where they were staying was opposite the Innocenti baby place. This is an important feature as it shows both their views towards babies after Evelyn had a miscarriage. Evelyn looks at all the children and symbols of children which suggests to the audience that she is being brave. It also shows Micks attitudes towards Evelyn and how much he cares for her. This is shown particularly as he apologises even though it is obvious that Evelyn had made the decision to stay there. In The First Adam, there is a constant symbol of his work as a woman and the reminder that he does not have time to appreciate his surroundings like Venetia does in The Last Adam.The image of his work, spread on the bed, suggests that he is extremely involved with it and sees Drab as a project rather than a beautiful place. This illustrates the extraordinariness of Bull, as he seems to have a very interesting perspective of work a sees it very differently to other people. This encourages the reader to believe that he has a stronger relationship with his work that his wife. This, again is shown by Bull calling his work his mistress. Lastly, in Stone Trees, there is a symbol of the solidarity of stone in comparison to the life of a tree. This shows the characters attitudes and impressions of their lives and surroundings in comparison to each other. For example, where as the narrator wants to freeze her love for her husband and does not feel that she can share her love with other people, similar to the stone petrifying tree, her husband has touched other peoples lives which is evident from his child who is like him in looks but also in personality. The narrators response to the child is important as it is the first time she feels c lose to a person other than her husband illustrated by the last line so now that you are which indicates that she feels close to her husband through the boy.In all three stories, Jane Gardam gives the impression of the characters being mainstream, unremarkable and average. Throughout the three stories, the characters relationships show the reader that they are special. In The First Adam, Bulls passion for his work is shown when he refers to it as his mistress. Jane Gardam also reveals the problems he has with having relationships with women. However, in An Unknown Child we see the relationship between Evelyn and her husband as being very different in comparison. It is shown to the reader at the beginning that the relationship between them is good and that even after the terrible event opening the story they are very close and support each other. This is not the case by the end of the story when Evelyn realises that she, never thought of him.We realise that Mick did not tell her how he was grieving and so just supported her decisions. Evelyn discovering this is a pivotal moment as she realises that she has not grieved for the loss of their child, which is shown as her, weeping at last. Therefore Evelyn is revealed as extraordinary despite the reader believing her to be a quite unremarkable woman throughout the story. This is similar to Stone Trees where the narrator has a moment of self-realisation when meeting her husbands child. It is revealed to the reader, however, as a pivotal moment when the boy, whose kindness surprises the narrator, begins her healing process Her lack of anger here, and her acceptance of the fact that he was having affairs, ironically kept them together. This shows her to be extraordinary as her love for her husband was so great that she felt it was the only way she could still be with him.Throughout all three stories, the characters opinions are portrayed as the most important feature. This is significant in showing the extraordinarine ss of ordinary people as it gives them very different personalities and lives within their own stories. This can easily be seen in Bull in The First Adam where he tells the audience exactly how he feels about his surroundings and how he sees Drab as a, bloody country. This is important as it demonstrates his opinions in contrast with his wifes who he says feels that she is intruding in his mans world when she goes to foreign countries to be with him. Similarly, in a story such as Stone Trees we are only given the opinion of the narrator and her thoughts of how Tom and Anna are feeling. In both cases, we can only assume that the narrators guesses are correct until she realises that she has misunderstood the situation. An Unknown Child, although written from a third person narrative position, concentrates on Evelyns point of view and it is only as she realises her husbands grief that the reader understands it too. In this story and in Stone Trees the reader shares, or only slightly an ticipates, the whole truth of the characters lives.Another feature that shows the extraordinariness of ordinary people is the twists that occur towards the end of the story. This makes sure that the reader sees that all the characters have more interesting lives than was originally thought. One of the most obvious of these occurs in An Unknown Child where Evelyns moment of self-realisation occurs and she sees that she, never thought of him. This illustrates a surprising fact about Evelyn to herself and to the audience that the family turning up late for dinner acted like a catalyst for them realising what they have lost. The main twist in The First Adam, however, is not so obvious. I, personally think that Bulls day of no work is the twist in this story as even though he was still bored in Drab, he is still in control of his life. In Stone Trees, the narrator is amazed at how kindly Peter is treating her, even though he is only seven. This evokes a moment of realisation when she see s the pink starfish and sees the, growing things that are there all the time, though only now and then seen.All these characters experience The Pangs of Love which shows them to be different and in some cases extraordinary. Jane Gardams use of writing styles, for example first and third person, monologue, stream of consciousness and use of metaphors of motifs teach the audience different features of the characters so that they are seen as individuals. The fact that the characters thoughts are all told to the reader helps them to empathise with the characters and see them as surprising for coping with their difficult situations in the ways that they do.