The Fire Alarm. At the Matinee. A Street-Car Conductor. In a Railway Station. Carrying a Message. Catching a Train. Home from the Philippines. 32. Supplying the Situation Elements. Not all of the situation elements are suggested in each of the above topics. For example, "The Shopkeeper" gives you but one of the four w's, a character. You must supply from your imagination a place, time, and occasion. In others, only the occasion is given and you must supply the other three elements, characters, place, and time; in others, time only is given; in others, place only. 33. Presenting Important Points Clearly. Do not let the mechanical matters which we have been studying in regard to sentence structure, etc., interfere with the unity of your narration by confusing your mental picture. It is all-important that you see the four elements of every situation very clearly in the mind's eye before you begin to write. Then take pains to present them clearly, but do not become monotonous in your manner of expressing them. The purpose of these various exercises in order, choice of words, and sentence structure is to teach you to avoid the habit of monotony in expression. Having learned how to write the situation with proper attention to variety of expression, order, and sentence structure, we shall in the next chapter return to Theme-model I. (§4), in which we use a series of these situations to tell a story. 34. What Situation-type II. Contains. This Situation-type contains all the elements of Type I., but for the sake of vividness, some of these are given in dialogue or monologue. When we meet a person for the first time, we often find out, through conversation with him, who he is and why we find him in that particular place at that particular time, and thus we determine the situation elements of character and occasion through dialogue. When we write a situation according to Type II., the time and place elements may be given in dialogue as well as those of character and occasion, as the examples in this section and in section 35 will show. It was a black October night in the year of grace 1872, that discovered me standing in front of the old tavern at the Corners. I was wet to the skin and in no amiable humor; and not being able to find bell-pull or knocker, or even a door, I belabored_the side of the house with my heavy walking-stick. In a minute or two I saw a light flickering somewhere aloft, then I heard the sound of a window opening, followed by an exclamation of disgust as a blast of wind extinguished the candle which had given me an instantaneous picture en silhouette of a man leaning out of a casement. "I say, what do you want, down there?" said an unprepossessing voice. "Isn't this a hotel?" I asked, finally. "Well, it is a sort of hotel," said the voice, doubtfully. "But what do you want here, at the Corners? What's your business? People don't come here, least ways in the middle of the night." "It isn't in the middle of the night," I returned, incensed. "I come on business connected with the new road. I'm the superintendent of the works." -THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH, Marjorie Daw and Other People. 35. Example of Situation-type II. Although we cannot write this new kind of situation until we have studied dialogue (see Chapter V.), the following example and suggestions should be read and compared with Situation-type I. (§25): One sunshiny morning, in the good old times of the town of Boston, a young carver in wood, well known by the name of Drowne, stood contemplating a large oaken log, which it was his purpose to convert into the figurehead of a vessel. And while he discussed within his own mind what sort of shape or similitude it were well to bestow upon this excellent piece of timber, there came into Drowne's workshop a certain Captain Hunnewell, owner and commander of the good brig called the Cynosure, which had just returned from her first voyage to Fayal. "Ah! That will do, Drowne, that will do!" cried the jolly captain, tapping the log with his rattan. "I bespeak this very piece of oak for the figure-head of the Cynosure. She has shown herself the sweetest craft that ever floated, and I mean to decorate her prow with the handsomest image that the skill of man can cut out of timber. And, Drowne, you are the fellow to execute it." — NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, Mosses from an Old Manse. SUGGESTIONS.-I. These two situations (§§ 34 and 35) contain all the elements of Situation-type I. Find them. 2. Some of these elements are given in dialogue. Which ones? DIRECTION Make a summary in your notebook of all the suggestions and directions you have had upon the Situation. CHAPTER IV. A SERIES OF SITUATIONS 36. Origin of Theme-model I. in Colloquial Speech. We must not think that the method of telling a story in a series of situations is something invented by a writer, and not derived from observation of the way people naturally tell a story in conversation. Have you ever gained the details of a narrative in somewhat the following way? FIRST METHOD-TOLD BY SEVERAL PERSONS Suppose that several people are sitting about a fireplace in the evening, talking over the happenings of an ordinary day. One says: "When I opened the door for the postman this morning, I happened to glance across the way and saw our neighbor, Mr. Smith, drive out with his new span of horses. He told me last week that he intended to take a day's rest from his business as soon as his new horses arrived." Another says: "I noticed him waiting in his carriage in front of Mr. Jones's at half-past eleven, when I was going over to Mary's. Mary said that he and Mr. Jones often drive to the Country Club for dinner on Saturdays." A third adds: "As I turned into Twenty-second Street on my way home, he and Mr. Jones were standing on the corner, looking wistfully after his horses fast disappearing down the avenue and dashing his handsome carriage against every lamp-post they passed." Have we not here an outline story of Mr. Smith's adventures of a day? Is not this given in the form of three situations? Examine each of the above speeches for the four w's. Prove that these situations have not all the details found in Situationtype I. SECOND METHOD-TOLD BY ONE PERSON The above story is told by three different speakers, but it might have been given in three situations by one person. Let us see: "When I was starting for the office this morning, I saw our friend Smith drive out of his barn with a new span of horses. It was evident from his air of composure and relaxation that he intended to have a holiday. "Just before lunch I went out to the Country Club to see about the shrubbery along the river. As I turned out of the gate on my way back, I saw him again. He had brought Jones out to dinner. "I met him for the third time about an hour ago when I was taking the car home. He and Jones stood on the corner of Twenty-second Street. His carriage lay in a heap of ruins on the opposite corner, and his horses were rapidly disappearing down the avenue." This, too, is an example of narration by means of a series of situations. Test each paragraph for the four w's. THIRD METHOD - IMPERSONAL When three people told the story we had an example of narrative in dialogue; that is, a story told by conversation. When one person told the story we had narrative in monologue; that is, told by one person. |