Lecture 5: Call Me Ishmael—Introducing a Character
Introduction by Report
z Another way to introduce a character is through the eyes of other
characters. Jim in /RUG-LP is one character introduced in this way.
William Faulkner also introduces Miss Emily in this way in his story “A
Rose for Emily”:When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her
funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a
fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the
inside of her house, which no one save an old man-servant—a
combined gardener and cook—had seen in at least ten years.
(&ROOHFWHG6WRULHV, p. 119)z 1RWLFHWKDWWKHXQQDPHG¿UVWSHUVRQQDUUDWRUVSHDNVRQEHKDOIRID
town. After a few paragraphs that describe Miss Emily’s history and her
VWDQGRI¿VKUHODWLRQVKLSZLWKWKHWRZQZHJHWDSK\VLFDOGHVFULSWLRQRI
her. Interestingly, this description is also given from the point of view of
the entire community; this is important in the story because Miss Emily
has become an object of fascination to the townspeople.z Faulkner deploys vivid, even pungent details to describe Miss Emily,
comparing her appearance to that of a bloated corpse submerged in
water. This physical description foreshadows a great deal about the
character and her story without being explicit, while leaving the reader
with an extremely vivid—perhaps repulsive—visual impression.Introduction through Time or Place
z One last way of introducing a character is by the technique of situating
KLPRUKHULQDVSHFL¿FWLPHRUSODFH:HVHHWKLVDSSURDFKLQWKH
opening paragraph of Robert Stone’s $)ODJIRU6XQULVH:Father Egan left off writing, rose from his chair and made his
way—a little unsteadily—to the bottle of Flor de Cana which
he had placed across the room from his desk. The study in
which he worked was lit by a Coleman lamp; he had turned
the mission generators off to save kerosene. The shutters were
open to receive the sea breeze and the room was cool and