Introduction
The autobiographical novel by Harriet Jacobs “Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl” is a story of survival and depicts the various problems and tortures female slaves at the time had to endure and go through in order to survive in the world. The realism mentioned in the book differs from the styles of others authors of fictional novels. This essay shows a comparison of styles in Hawthorne’s “The House of the Seven Gables” and Melville’s “Moby Dick” with providing a parallel with the style used in Harriet Jacobs’ “Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl”, with the main purpose to distinguish the necessity of using various techniques and strategies in Jacobs’ autobiographical work.
Overview
In analyzing the narrative styles of Hawthorne’s “The House of the Seven Gables” and Melville’s “Moby Dick” the reader must keep in mind the different settings of the two novels and possibly the different themes. As Harriet Jacobs’ “Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl” the central point of our analysis is an autobiographical novel, the “The House of the Seven Gables” and “Moby Dick” are fictional, therefore the strategies used by the authors to increase the believability of their books are different and it is obvious that the goals were more difficult.
Perspective Comparison
The narration style in the both novels is different, wherein “Moby Dick” the merging of the narration and the main character of the novel (Ishmael) is achieved during the first person narration in which there are no parts in the book that give the idea that the hero knows the future outcome of the events. This strategy gives the opportunity for the reader to live the events accordingly to their occurrence and to be in the same position as the hero.
The identification of the author, the hero, and the narrator become identical as narration switches from the active style of telling the story to the omniscient narrator style. This style in addition to the purpose of identifying the reader with the hero gives the story more believable pattern as the reader acquires the knowledge of the upcoming events and the decisions at the same time with the main character in a way that makes him live the novel.
The narrative style in “The House of the Seven Gables” is a little different and serves other purposes, the third-person perspective of unknown character that is not present in the book, instantly puts a border between the narrator and the events. The author wants the reader to believe as he tells us somewhat a tale about which he knows everything. Sometimes the author makes an effort to identify himself with the reader when switching to a plural form referring as “we”, but mostly the reader is presented to the events in the order that is told by the narrator.
The Moral
The “tale” impression is also obvious through referring at the beginning of the book to the novel as a romance, giving an impression to the reader that in spite of the fact that the events of the novel might be real; the novel is told through a subjective point of view to achieve a pointed moral or a conclusion. Another similarity to a tale is the outline of this moral in the book. While in “Moby Dick” the main goal of the story is result of the reader’s deduction in “The House of the Seven Gables”, it is pointed right away, “the wrong-doing of one generation lives into the successive ones, and… becomes a pure and uncontrollable mischief.”. Indeed there are other conclusions that could be made during reading, but these lines set the main theme of the novel for the reader to be prepared as to which direction to set them in interpreting the events.
The Background Setting
Another technique the authors used to narrow the line between the fiction and the reality by making the novel believable is mentioning a background or a setting for their narration. In “Moby Dick” the Etymology & Extracts were mentioned to bring creditability and to give the main plot a wider sense. Mentioning the sources and the origins of the word “whale” and giving although doubtful scientifically information, might have served the novel in raising the realism of the events.
When the reader in the book is being informed about the importance of the plot’s main antagonist he is willing more to believe that these events actually happened and Moby Dick if not by the same name but it actually surfed and threatened the lives of many people. In addition it might become reasonable the total obsession of Ahab in killing Moby Dick.
In a similar manner in “The House of the Seven Gables” in the first chapter the history of the house is mentioned and a background of the future events that might help to understand the curse that is present in the novel. Thus in the same way the reader tends to believe in the actual events and the existence of such a house and the tone of the novel is set through the theme of a revenge, murder, the following generations and the house to which all of the participants of the novel are related.
Symbolism
Both of the Novel’s share the usage of symbolism to express various key indicators to provide each reader to individual conclusion. Although the styles of the novels are defined, the personal extraction of the books through different interpretations may vary. The God, fate, betrayal, obsession, greed and love all these factors might be found and interpreted through the story in different ways depending on what point or part of the book was the most memorable and made the most impression on the reader.
Comparison to “Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl”
Comparing the styles used in Hawthorne’s “The House of the Seven Gables” and Melville’s “Moby Dick” to Harriet Jacobs’ “Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl” in particular and autobiographical works in general we might come to the first and the most obvious key difference, which is the usage of opposite intentions in telling the story. In “The House of the Seven Gables” and “Moby Dick” independently on the origins and the source inspiration for the plot, the author’s came up first with an idea, and a main thesis and started building events and characters around this thesis, the ending might not be obvious instantly and might occur during writing.
In “Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl” the events and the characters were already known, there was not any need to create a plot for these events, and while it might be agreed that sometimes in biographies a little fictional dramatization can be useful to add intrigue to the story, the actual events of Harriet Jacobs or Linda Brent “Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl” are drama in itself. The narration was merely a tool to emphasize the relation of the author to the characters and the events, highlighting the fact that they were once a reality.
Another important factor is the distinction between the author and the heroine of the book, although they are the same person, the pseudonym of Harriet Jacobs used in the book and the different names for the characters involved, might have emphasized that she suffered a lot and it might have been difficult for her to relive these events by herself again while writing the book. The narration style of the book is also absent of symbolism as the path of the heroine is obvious and there could only be morals such as “You have to be willed and educated to overcome the obstacles in your life” or “No matter how hard the enemies try to break me down I will survive”, the point is that these morals are obvious and do not need to be hidden or symbolical. The novel also did not start with a background as it does not need to, because the story begun with the birth of the heroine.
The main plot is opened before the reader, and the ending too, as it can be assumed that the heroine could publish her book is free, although the ending in the book did not go that far. However, some of the plot’s elements might be questionable as a reality, the author might have lived this events or not, but they were close to being a fiction. E.g. living and hiding in the garret, Mr. Sands being elected in the congress, and writing letters postmarked from New York to trick Dr. Flint.
Conclusion
As it was shown through the essay the idea of a novel is based on real-life events is dramatized in itself in comparison to fiction novels. The strategies used in Hawthorne’s “The House of the Seven Gables” and Melville’s “Moby Dick” might have served the author in providing an intrigue to the plot. As a personal opinion there could not be more intrigue or drama than in an autobiographical novel of suffering and torture in the absence of freedom. The narrative style of Harriet Jacobs, the diction of the sentences and the style of language used projects the relation of the author with the main characters in the book and did not use the styles used in other books mentioned in the comparison, and the book had its advantage is a real-life story.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, N., ‘The House of the Seven Gables’, Courier Dover, 1999, ISBN:0486408825.
Jacobs, H.A., Francis, L.M., ‘Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl’, University of Michigan, 1861.
Melville., H., ‘Moby-Dick’, 2004, ISBN:1904633773.