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Big Two-Hearted River & Almos' A Man
Big Two-Hearted River~ Ernest Hemingway:
&
Almos' A Man~ Richard Wright Lindsay does a great job in recognizing the structure of these two works. She mentioned that the use of dialogue was unique in both texts and i agree with this but wonder as to why the authors used dialogue in such a way other than just to give the reader a close up view of what was happening in the story. I think that both authors use their dialogue very carefully as to not just help the reader envision the scene, but rather play it out their self by speaking the part, along with the mental image that is provided. By choosing such passages as
Then something musta been wrong wid ol Jenny. She wouldn’t ack right a-tall. She started snortin n kickin her heels. Ah tried to hol her, but she pulled erway, rearin n goin on. Then when the point of the plow was stickin up in the air, she swung erroun n twisted hersef back on it….She stuck hersef n started t bleed. N fo Ah could do anything, she wuz dead’. ‘Did you ever hear of anything like that in all your life?’ asked Jim Hawkins
the reader gets both the mental image and the voice behind the scene. By using this style of writing the reader in my opinion could not get closer to the the text they are enveloped in. Both Ernest and Richard use this style and as Lindsay said
The narrative structure between Ernest Hemingway’s “Big Two-Hearted River” and Richard Wright’s “Almos’ A Man” could not be more different, yet accomplish the same thing.
