I admit I am not the fastest, most thorough, or most
enthusiastic book reader I know. In fact, I am probably in the bottom 5 in at
least one of those categories. This is especially shocking upon
self-reflection, as I know how much I generally enjoy English classes. This
English class has been unlike any other I have ever taken, because I never once
thought about what a chore reading might be.
So, I ask myself the inevitable question: why has this class
been different? What makes Graham Greene so special?
The answer, I think, is very simple. Greene, more than any
other writer I have ever encountered, brilliantly illustrates a scene, allowing
the reader to participate in it. This was the most striking characteristic of
Greene’s work for me because of how I read. When I’m reading a book, I like to
(and almost have to) “watch” what I’m reading, as if it were a movie. When I
watch real movies, I can more easily relate to the scene, almost becoming a
character in it. Thus, as I convert the words in the book to the picture in my
mind I become more involved (or, engagé)
in the novel. Greene (I think, like me) greatly respects the medium of film, such that he declared that the film of The Third Man, not the novella from which it was adapted, was "the finished state of the story." This, in my opinion, partially influences his writing style and its ability to make a book come alive.
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| Greene (right) with Carol Reed, director of The Fallen Idol and The Third Man (both adapted from Greene's work) |
Greene accomplishes this in two ways: (1) through the focus
on character dialogue and (2) the perfectly vivid depictions of the setting.
Just flipping through any of Greene’s works that we read this year illustrates
the first aspect. Some pages are only half-filled because of the number of new
lines and indents Greene incorporates into dialogues between characters.
However, I think the second facet of Greene’s writing is more important in
engaging me in the text. Where I noticed it first and most obviously is the
beginning of what I consider his best work, The
Power and the Glory: “Mr. Tench went out to look for his ether cylinder,
into the blazing Mexican sun and the bleaching dust. A few vultures looked down
from the roof with shabby indifference: he wasn’t carrion yet. A faint feeling
of rebellion stirred in Mr. Tench’s heart, and he wrenched up a piece of the
road with splintering finger-nails and tossed it feebly towards them. One rose
and flapped across the town: over the tiny plaza, over the bust of an
ex-president, ex-general, ex-human being, over the two stalls which sold
mineral water, towards the river and the sea. It wouldn’t find anything there:
the sharks looked after the carrion on that side.” (7) The scene doesn’t end
there, but I only have so many words. The first two pages of The Power and the Glory are an archetype
of Greene’s ability to create setting, and this makes the job of my cranial-dwelling
film editor a lot easier.
It is through this technique that Greene has become one of
my favorite writers, and this one of my favorite classes. Thank you, peers and
Mr. Kiczek, it has been the most interesting trimester in the world.
2 comments:
I completely agree with Dan on the two points that make Graham Greene’s writing so successful. I too find myself visualizing stories and painting a picture in my head based on what is said. While I agree with the second point Dan makes about Greene’s descriptive settings, I would like to expand on Greene’s use of dialogue. Many of the most important scenes in Graham Greene’s novels haven’t been huge action sequences or even many explosive moments, but rather have been intimate conversations where a minor character is introduced and developed in order to have the reader understand something about a major character. This is shown in The Power and The Glory between the mestizo and the whisky priest and the old lady in jail and the whisky priest. In both instances, Greene allows each character to challenge each other’s preconceived notions while at the same time challenging the reader’s preconceived notion about a certain touchy subject, which in both cases in this novel were about the Church. By hashing these character exchanges out through rapid dialogue, Greene not only conveys his points but keeps the reader, as Dan so cleverly put it, “engagé.”
I think the setting is certainly one of Graham Greene's strengths. One needs only remember the first chapter of The Power and the Glory to see this. The sun is baking, the vultures circle, and the land is just generally inhospitable, opening up a representation of the state of living in Mexico and the corruption of the state that becomes so important later on. However, the setting is not only used for theme - it is used to make the story real. Whether it is in the jailhouse, or at the plateau with the crosses, or even at the dock at the start of the story, Greene makes the setting come to life with details and descriptions that do not hesitate to create the gritty atmosphere that we would expect. The setting compliments the characters, reinforces the theme, and just in general makes the story more realistic.
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