First, the effects of narration in Matilda’s childhood, mainly when Mr Watts reads the novel to the children in the classroom and she gets to know Pip, will be examined. The matters focussed on will be the way Matilda constantly compares herself to Pip, the protagonist of Dickens’ Great Expectations, as well as how the embedding of the novel into her life influences the relationship she has to her parents and the way the impact of the novel changes when she becomes an adult will be analyzed.
Here Matilda’s efforts to define the concept of home and how her development in general is dependent on her engagement with Dickens and his work will be looked at. In a third part, now connecting the young girl on the island and the grown-up woman, an analysis on how Matilda utilises Great Expectations throughout her life in order to first try to protect herself from trauma and later on how she tries to heal her trauma, particularly by writing an autobiographical account of her life, will follow.
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION
2. THE EFFECT OF NARRATION IN MATILDA’S CHILDHOOD
2.1 Matilda’s constant comparison to Pip and its effects
2.2. Matilda’s Reflection of her Relationship to her Parents based on Great Expectations
3. THE EFFECT OF NARRATION IN MATILDA’S ADULTHOOD
3.1. Matilda’s process of defining the meaning of home
3.2 The Impact of Matilda’s Engagement with Great Expectations on her Development in General
4. NARRATION AS A TECHNIQUE FOR MATILDA TO COPE WITH TRAUMA
5. CONCLUSION
Research Objectives and Core Themes
This paper explores the performative power of literature within Lloyd Jones' novel Mister Pip, specifically focusing on how the protagonist, Matilda, utilizes Charles Dickens' Great Expectations to navigate her reality, construct a sense of home, and process severe psychological trauma.
- The role of Great Expectations as a psychological tool for the protagonist.
- The blurring of boundaries between fictional narratives and personal reality.
- The evolving definition of "home" in the context of displacement and conflict.
- The use of autobiographical writing and narrative reconstruction as therapeutic mechanisms.
- The impact of war and colonial history on individual identity formation.
Excerpt from the Book
2.1 Matilda’s constant comparison to Pip and its effects
The effects literature and reading fiction can have on the reader are unique. Literature and especially Great Expectations is presented in Jones’ novel in a way that it contains a substantial amount of performative power and that “fictional language is not without any real effect” and “performs […] through an extension or broadening of Matilda’s reality […] but also through its power to make her act in certain ways” (Korkut-Nayki 44). It allows the reader to escape into a fictional world that might be completely different to theirs, which has a direct impact on the perception of one’s own reality. It causes one to empathise with certain characters and to compare the stories to one’s own life. Matilda takes this phenomenon one step further and constantly compares her life and the situations she has to face to Pip, the protagonist of Great Expectations. She does not only empathise with Pip; she adapts his life and projects his fictional story directly onto her own reality, as can be seen in her statement at the very end of Mister Pip: “Pip was my story” (Jones 219). By doing that, the lines between reality and fiction blur and she starts confusing the characters from the book and the people around her.
Summary of Chapters
1. INTRODUCTION: This chapter introduces the central role of Great Expectations in Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip and outlines the paper's intention to analyze the consequences of narration on Matilda’s personal development.
2. THE EFFECT OF NARRATION IN MATILDA’S CHILDHOOD: This section examines how Matilda, during her youth, projects the life of the character Pip onto her own experiences to find guidance and stability amidst the island's conflict.
3. THE EFFECT OF NARRATION IN MATILDA’S ADULTHOOD: This chapter analyzes how Matilda’s engagement with Dickens' work evolves as she reaches adulthood, specifically focusing on her changing definitions of home and personal maturity.
4. NARRATION AS A TECHNIQUE FOR MATILDA TO COPE WITH TRAUMA: This part explores how Matilda uses the act of storytelling and, eventually, autobiographical writing to process and heal from the traumatic events she witnessed during the war.
5. CONCLUSION: The final chapter summarizes how Matilda’s entire perception of reality is mediated through her individual interpretation of Dickens' literature, marking her transformation into a self-conscious individual.
Keywords
Mister Pip, Great Expectations, Lloyd Jones, Charles Dickens, Matilda, Narration, Trauma, Identity, Home, Performative Power, Fiction, Reality, Autobiography, Bougainville, Literature
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the central focus of this research paper?
The paper examines how the protagonist Matilda in Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip uses Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations as a framework to understand her own life, protect herself from trauma, and define her identity.
What are the primary themes explored in this study?
Key themes include the performative power of reading, the blurring of lines between fiction and reality, the search for a sense of belonging, and the therapeutic potential of autobiographical narrative.
What is the main research question of this analysis?
The research explores the effects and consequences of different instances of narration within Mister Pip on the development of the protagonist, Matilda.
Which academic approach is applied to the text?
The paper employs a literary-analytical approach, drawing on secondary critical sources to examine the performative power of literature and the psychological impact of narrative engagement.
What does the main body of the text cover?
The main body investigates the influence of Great Expectations on Matilda’s childhood perceptions, her adult reflections on the concept of "home," and the role of storytelling as a coping mechanism for trauma.
Which keywords are essential to understanding this work?
Key terms include Narration, Trauma, Identity, Home, Performative Power, Fiction, Reality, and Autobiography.
How does Matilda's perception of "home" shift throughout the novel?
Initially, Matilda experiences a total loss of home due to war and seeks an imaginative substitute; as an adult, she redefines home not as a material place, but as a combination of social, familial, and community-based origins.
How does the act of writing her own story help Matilda?
By creating an autobiographical narrative, Matilda moves from an "unquestioning identification" with a fictional character to an active rewriting of her own life, which serves as a method to work through suppressed traumatic memories.
- Quote paper
- Lena Formella (Author), 2020, Effects and Consequences of Narration in Lloyd Jones' "Mister Pip" on Matilda, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1004054
