Petterson does not use figurative language very often. Most of what he has written has a very literal meaning to it. Figurage language is most present during Trond's recollections of his childhood. Memories from childhood often are remembered not in a literal way. For instance, Trond recalls going "out stealing horses"(40, and numerous other instances) with Jon not in a literal sense. Imagination that children creates figurative memories. This is why the most figurative language is used retrospectively.
The voice of Trond in this novel is a significant literary element. His voice is particularly informing when Trond is interracting with others and through his view of others. Trond's voice is a key descriptor of his personality. Trond goes off on a tangent: "Presumably I had seen it on a film... But I hate being entertained... Anyway, I did not learn to sharpen a chainsaw from my father" (72). Trond started by telling of his past and watching others with chainsaws. Then he goes on to a tangent about entertainment before finally making his point. This portrays Trond as a storyteller. He feels the need to share background information. His voice in this quote allows one to understand him better. This quote also shows that Trond enjoys factual things rather than emotions. He shares all that he did but not his emotions. Similarily Petterson does not create Trond as an emotional person.
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I agree that this author doesn't use figurative language very often. That was a thoughtful comment that I didn't think of on my own until I read your post. I also think your quote fits well and backs-up your statement that his voice describes his personality.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more with what you just said, the idea that figurative language is for childhood is very accurate. It is interesting because as the book progresses there is less figurative language as Trond matures. I also think that the voice is very important because it makes the story completely different if you imagine it through Jon's eyes or another character.
ReplyDeleteSara, what you said about figurative language meant for childhood seems to be accurate the more I read the story. I feel that Petterson is a straigt forward guy when it comes to describing things. He's not the one to "filler" sentences like similes or metaphors. I tend to like this a lot about Petterson because I dont like to read a full page of similes and metaphors describing something not even relevent to the story.
ReplyDeleteSara,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. Petterson likes to reserve his figurative language for very important events that happened in Trond's childhood. Throughout the book so far, there is a lot of literal meaning to the words of the author.
Sara,
ReplyDeleteI agree on how you believe that Figuratibve language is for children. These aspects arise alot in Tronds childhood and that is definetly a way to grasp the readers attention
Sara,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what you said about how the figurative language is mostly used in the childhood flashbacks. It seems that as Trond gets older and ages things in his life become more straight forward and the imagination dies down.