Purpose of the Multiple Narrators in Nicole Krauss’s the History of Love – Essay – 90909090
Search
Essays
Sign up
Sign in
Contact us
Tweet
Index
/American History
Purpose of the Multiple Narrators in Nicole Krauss’s the History of Love
William BeaulieuAlison TettThe Novel27 oct. 2016Purpose of the Multiple Narrators in Nicole Krauss’s The history of Love   The History of Love is a novel about novels. Nicole Krauss uses several first-person narrators and one omniscient narrator to show how novels let readers experience characters’s lives from the inside, how people’s lives are connected and how ultimately novels can give readers a « God’s eye » view of existence. First argument will be about how the three first-person are connected to the purpose of the novel, the second one will be about the dramatic irony that is created by those narrators and finally, the last one will be about the exaggerating presence of the omniscient narrator in Zvi Litvinoff chapters.  Like most novels, one of the objectives of The History of Love is to let readers experience what it is like to be in the head of somebody else, and to show the connections between people and events. The author integrates three different narrators to bring three different points of view in the novel. Leo Gursky is the first narrator to be introduced in the story. He’s an old Jewish Polish nobcaust survivor who has been through a lot in his life. The type of narration used for Leo is open, honest and laid bare. Also, his narration moves freely during the whole novel. In the novel, there are a lot of flashbacks of the most important events in his life. For example, when he refers to the memories of the time before world war II, it is as if he has one foot in the past and one in the present. All those memories influence his writing and narration style. He’s grateful for the time he has left and he’s able to preserve his thoughts in writing even if he’s an old man. Alma Singer is the second narrator to be introduced in the novel. She’s a fifteen-year-old urban teenager searching for mysterious Eastern Europeans who might not actually exist, and keeping a detailed notebook called « How to survive in the wild . » Alma is very much the energetic life force behind the book. If Leo is largely concerned with growing old and dying, Alma is concerned with growing up. The age of Alma plays a very important role in the type of narrator she is. Her type of narration is confused, excited, hesitant, volatile, overwhelmed, and imaginative, just like she is. As for Emmanuel Chaim Singer aka Bird, he’s the third narrator. Bird is Alma’s young brother. Everyone calls him « Bird » because of his attempting to fly by jumping off a building. Bird was born Jewish and became a observant Jew at nine years old and declared that he’s a « lamed vovnik » which, in Jewish scripture, is one of the thirty-six people in  the world who may become the Messiah. Compared to his sister, who’s in search for identity and quiet grief, Bird tries his best to connect to his heritage and his father, through religion.   There’s a dramatic irony in The History of Love because the fact that there are three first-person narrators leads to it. Readers come to understand the truth before the character do. Leo was writing the manuscript of The History of Love, something we do not discover until the end of the novel. In a passage, Leo says that he didn’t write about real things and he didn’t write imaginary things. He wrote about the only thing he knew. He continued to fill pages with her name. What we understand is that what Leo knows is the love he has for Alma. The fragments of the representational register of the manuscript of The History of Love that we see in the novel are signs to know the truth. The truth is that Leo actually wrote The History of Love. It is a blending of the real and the imaginary, an in-between reality and fantasy register. the type of writing that rosa uses in the introduction of Leo’s novel is both beautiful imprecise and inexact regarding the facts and realities of avi, but the type is well used to evoke the truth about who he was. Rosa invites the reader to see everything through Zvi’s eyes. Also, readers see the irony of Bird completely misunderstanding the events bus nevertheless bringing Leo and Alma together. he is a little bit strange and crazy as he constantly thinks that he might be the Messiah and he can’t stop picking his nose with his arm around his face.
Continue for 4 more pages »
Read full document
Download as (for upgraded members)
Citation Generator
MLA 7
CHICAGO
(2016, 11). Purpose of the Multiple Narrators in Nicole Krauss’s the History of Love. EssaysForStudent.com. Retrieved 11, 2016, from
“Purpose of the Multiple Narrators in Nicole Krauss’s the History of Love” EssaysForStudent.com. 11 2016. 2016. 11 2016 <
"Purpose of the Multiple Narrators in Nicole Krauss’s the History of Love." EssaysForStudent.com. EssaysForStudent.com, 11 2016. Web. 11 2016. <
"Purpose of the Multiple Narrators in Nicole Krauss’s the History of Love." EssaysForStudent.com. 11, 2016. Accessed 11, 2016.
Essay Preview
By: 90909090
Submitted: November 15, 2016
Essay Length: 1,053 Words / 5 Pages
Paper type: Essay Views: 431
Report this essay
Tweet
Related Essays
History on the Articles of Confederation and Constitution
History on the Articles of Confederation And Constitution The first constitution and government of the colonies, the Articles of Confederation, was drafted by John Dickinson
1,280 Words  |  6 Pages
History of Nazi Germany
History of Nazi Germany National Socialism between 1920 and 1945 can best be described as an era of constant change. Hitler's enrollment in the German
1,210 Words  |  5 Pages
History of Romantic Poetry
History of Romantic Poetry In earlier days of poetry there were three types of poetry that were alike in some ways but different on views.
539 Words  |  3 Pages
Purpose and History of Swat
The History and Purpose of S.W.A.T. SWAT. The acronym invokes so many thoughts - danger, fighting crime, shootings, heavily artillery, TV, movies and more. The
1,618 Words  |  7 Pages
Similar Topics
Fair ampAmp Lovely
History Oil Painting
Get Access to 89,000+ Essays and Term Papers
Join 209,000+ Other Students
High Quality Essays and Documents
Sign up
© 2008–2020 EssaysForStudent.comFree Essays, Book Reports, Term Papers and Research Papers
Essays
Sign up
Sign in
Contact us
Site Map
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
Facebook
Twitter