Narrative Techniques Of Humboldt’s Gift

Humboldt’s Gift depicts the turbulent and changeable social life of Americaagainst the background of modern and contemporary American ideological andintellectual circles by means of narrator of the leading hero, Charley Citrine, exhibitsthe sheer cunning and falsehood between the American people of that time andhumanity crisis of mutual distrust, profoundly revealing the damage of the materialworld to people’s spiritual world.This paper utilizes the theory of classical narratology from three aspects whichinclude the narrator, focalization and characterization to make narrative techniquesanalysis of the novel. It is comprehensively constructed in three layers whichincluding narrative layer, plot layer and perceptual layer by the narrator in novelthrough the organization toward plots and characters. The conflict and conversion ofspiritual pursuit and material pursuit, the different life trajectory of the two poets arereflected by the narrator organizes philosophy thoughts. It reveals the profoundphilosophical thinking. The comment function is adopted by the narrator to guidereaders to regard the characters and events in the story and to better comprehend themeaning of the works.Humboldt’s Gift by means of original zero focalization and internal focalization,an artist with complex personalities is presented to readers in multifaceted andmultileveled way, which not only avoid the shortage and imperfection of theconventional first-person point of view, but also develop the narration diversely.In terms of characterization, characters’ extreme personalities are reflectedthrough the description of psychology and behavior details in novel. It reveals thetragic life of the two different characters. The skills of irony and contrast display theideology dualism of contemporary American intellectuals and deepen the theme ofnovel.