Sunday, January 3, 2016

How does the first narrator in the story differ from the second narrator, Simon Wheeler?

The key to noticing the difference between the two narrators in the story is to look at the language and diction used.  For instance, the first narrator writes with a polished and formal diction, noting, "I called on good-natured, garrulous old Simon Wheeler, and inquired after your friend, Leonidas W. Smiley, as you requested me to do, and I hereunto append the result."  With words like "garrulous" and "hereunto," a reader rightly notes that even though the narrator is telling a story, he is still using an educated diction.  Compare that to Simon Wheeler, who starts his story in this way: "here was a feller here once by the name of Jim Smiley..."  His sentences and syntax meander along, and the reader gets the sense that he rarely takes a breath, or as the first narrator notes, "He never smiled, he never frowned, he never changed his voice from the gentle-flowing key to which he tuned the initial sentence."  The reader will also notices more colloquialisms such as "solitry" instead of "solitary" or "Thish-yer" instead of "This here."  All give indications that Simon Wheeler is not refined like the first narrator, and he likely grew up in the West or frontier, not the East like the first narrator.  

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