Comparasion Essay

Within The House of the Spirits and The Story of Zahra, Isabel Allende and Hanan al-Shaykh establish setting through their use of point of view, narrative technique, and parallelism. Allende uses two different types of point of view to tell her story, first person and third person. They differ in the way she presents them because the first person point of view comes from Esteban Trueba, whose thoughts are directly from experiencing the story, whereas the third person point of view comes from an unknown source who has only read the story through journal entries. Al-Shaykh uses point of view differently because she shows multiple first person point of view. The change of point of view in literature, affects the way the reader can perceive the setting that the character is in. Allende and al-Shaykh use narrative technique to show that characters are all different in the way they describe a setting. The differences are seen by the reader through the feelings that the character experiences and through the specific diction that both authors use. Both authors also use parallelism to show that their characters can reflect the setting. This essay will compare the ways that both authors create setting through the above techniques.

Allende and al-Shaykh both use point of view in different ways to establish setting. Al-Shaykh creates the setting of Africa through three different first person points of view whereas Allende does this through her contrast of a first person point of view and a third person omniscient. With Zahra’s point of view, coming to Africa without ever living there before affects that setting because everything is new to her, so she makes assumptions, “…a narrow corridor, filled with TV sets, radios and records, stacked on shelves to the ceiling. When I saw these for the first time, I was afraid they might tumble on my headвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ (al-Shaykh, 1986, p.20). The “narrow corridor” represents Zahra’s assumption about her uncle’s life because she feels trapped in Africa with no way of getting out. Her thoughts about the “TV sets, radios and records” falling shows that it’s a new setting because it is not something she has seen before. Allende’s use of third person omniscient is a contrast with al-Shaykh’s use of first person point of view because Allende conveys the story through a character who is telling the story through journal entries, “…Clara understood that there was a place for her in Tres Marias and, as she recorded in her notebooks, she felt that she had finally discovered her mission in life. She was not impressed by the brick houses, the school, and the abundant foodвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ (Allende, 1982, p.105). The quote shows how the narrator receives Clara’s thoughts through the use of her journal entries. This affects the reader because there is less validity in the narrator’s words. This will affect the setting because the point of view of a character, like Clara, could be different from what the narrator has read in the journals. The way an author uses point of view can affect the reader’s assumption of the setting because it is dependant on the reliability of the character whose view point we are given.

Al-Shaykh uses narrative technique, which is identified through diction, to help the reader distinguish the character’s feelings about the setting. Al-Shaykh uses narration to show the reader how the same setting, Africa, perceived in very different ways. For example, Zahra feels trapped and alone in Africa which affects the reader because we are only provided with Zahra’s feelings instead of just a blatant description about the setting. These feelings that Zahra experiences influence the setting through the words that al-Shaykh chooses to use, “…felt like crying, like running away, like screaming until the movie finished the lights came up. Hatred for the darkness, for the faces of the audience…many days and night might pass in safety to give me a chance of burying my sadness and uneaseвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ (al-Shaykh, 1986, p.23). Zahra’s feelings of hatred, disgust, frustration and melancholy change the reader’s view of the movie theatres because the lights represent both a good and a bad thing for Zahra. If the lights come on then she will have to go back to her uncle’s house with him and if they stay off longer then Zahra will never escape from her current situation. This feeling that the reader is provided with comes from the author’s use of specific diction such as “hatred”, “burying my sadness”, “unease” and “screaming”, which convey a character who wants to escape from their current situation. If this situation was through the uncle,