A Space For Expression and Introspection
A Space To Be Determined.
A Space To Be Determined.
Red Clocks is a book filled with bold choices and decisions, from both a storytelling and even a cover perspective. So the choice of telling this story from five varying perspectives is an interesting one. Leni Zumas intertwines these characters both in narrative and structure and I think that this formality allows for a feeling of inter-connectivity between all of the characters. Even Eivor-- who is dead long before the main story begins-- feels very connected to what's happening in the narrative, particularly with Ro. Based off our previous class discussions, I believe that Zumas decides to tell this story through five different voices as a way to act against a patriarchal standard of turning women against each other. In this way Zumas has essentially brought five women together through struggle and strife. I wonder myself how the story would change if told from only the perspective of maybe Ro and Mattie. I think lessening the amount of perspectives would dampen the grand scale of Red Clocks itself. Having the perspective of a woman who acts as a vigilante of sorts, a young girl going through an accidental, a woman who wants the accidental, and a woman who questions her accidental (referring to Susan, her children most likely weren't accidental), these outlooks provide a large scope in context of female choice and affirmation. This novel doesn't represent a universal spectrum of patriarchal oppression on women but it does still do a good job--great even, at telling this specific narrative and this specific ordeal on women. Props to Zumas on that. Thoughts??
P.S. Call me slow or whatever you want but I never realized what I was looking at when I looked at the cover of Red Clocks until very recently. The cover always stood out to me and then one day I just had a “duh” moment. Bold choice indeed.
3 Comments
I agree that Zumas made some bold choices, especially the cover design! Rest assured, it is an abstract pattern. Second, I do think the decision to voice four different characters separately strengthened the novel, echoing Woolf's quote in the epigraph and showing there are multiple roles for women.
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Alison
3/18/2019 01:05:58 pm
This is a great summary of what Zumas has accomplished with this novel. I agree that all the different perspectives do a ton in helping to form a sense of universal experience (while of course maintain individual struggles). Having only Mattie and Ro involved would truly be to only include opposite ends of the spectrum in regards to motherhood.
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Nicole
3/20/2019 08:15:32 am
I agree that while this book does not give an entirely universal spectrum, it still does a great job of telling the story that it does with those specific characters. The characters are all so different from each other, at such different places in life, that feels universal enough, at least within the confines of this specific story.
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Trey BrownA creative-writing major at Wright State with a particular interest in motion pictures. Archives
April 2019
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