The Charm Buyers (Reliability of Narration)

    Reliable narration depends on various things but mostly how the reader receives it and perceives reality in their world-view. For myself, reliable narration depends largely on how dialogue between characters matches inferences or statements made by the narrator and relatability to the narrator. Although, I may have not found these particular reasons of reliabilty in The Charm Buyers there were other views of reliability present. In Lilian Howan’s The Charm Buyers Marc represents the narrator and a character present in his narration.

    Marc the narrator sets up the various settings and gives context on the different characters throughout the book. Early on he shows us his mom isn’t very present in his life, his father is more present but pretty hard on him and his grandmother A-Tai grounds him and has showed him and taught him a majority of things he needs in order to keep moving as a character. He then introduces us to Marie-Laure and Radish and as readers we see how their relationships play out. When we see how Marc and Marie-Laure’s relationship plays out through intimate ways this was a signal to me that the narrator was being quite vulnerable (channeled through Marie-Laure and Marc) and gave the narrator points on reliability.

    Another aspect of the narrator’s reliability is through the different emotions the character/narrator experienced. For example, Marc states, “I couldn’t remember the words, only the feeling afterwards that I wanted to swallow those words or to spit them out so that they would never exist—like all the memories I wanted to forget, the things I wished I had never done, the stupid feeling that made me want to peel every layer of skin away and become completely invisible and forgotten, so that I didn’t have to remember.” (Howan, 88.) This felt very real to me. It felt like another vulnerable moment for narration and for the character to channel and play out. This created reliability because it showed the emotions or feelings one doesn’t always want to be portrayed which is guilt or regret which is also relatable to feel these things and see or hear others speak on them.

    One of the final things that made Marc a reliable narrator and character was following the theme of, “Who was rich, who was wealthy? You couldn’t tell from appearance alone. The old Hakkas dressed and lived the same, wearing rundown clothes and living in rundown houses, some of them little more than plywood and corrugated tin sheet shelters.” (Howan, 40.) This idea of customs for Hakka’s presented by Marc was found in his words but also his presentation of his grandma, A-Tai and the frugal lifestyle she lead. We don’t see much of this lifestyle from Marc until the end of book when trades his soul for the magic to heal Marie-Laure. After this the narrator notions to us that Marc becomes a lowkey chicken-breeder. Which I thought was brilliant and reliable of the narrator to complete this lead and notion. What seemed to be a small detail about the customs of Hakka people became the fate of the lead character. To tie up the detail within the life of the main character created reliability to me because whenever a seed is planted by an author and later on you can see it bloom or it’s importance that creates reason in which goes into relatability or believability.

    What I still wonder is if the charm that you keep hidden and to yourself that A-Tai told Marc about was actually his soul in the end and maybe that’s the reason why he’s able to offer his soul for the magic and powerful?

Comments

  1. ElmazwritesSeptember 27, 2017 at 5:00 PM

    (Please sign your blogs) Thanks for analysis. I like the final thoughts and am curious too about the deal with the devil
    e

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  2. AnonymousOctober 11, 2017 at 11:21 AM

    Hello, J. Townsend

    I appreciate your interpretation and analysis of how the narrator's voice and character--Marc, creates reliability for the reader when he gives context through his point of view or color to the various scenes and characters he interacts with. I was very interested in the first scenes in Marc's narrative too, and do agree that A-Tai "grounds him and has show[n] him and taught him a majority of the things he needs in order to keep moving as a character." Including this grounding I believe adds to the reliability of the character's arc and creates authenticity to his progression throughout this historical novel. I explored this concept of grounding a character's voice in reliability through Marc's interpretation of his shared memories with his predecessors in these chapters--how historical memories and childhood experiences and sensations can bring color to or be colored by adult retrospection. I like how you continue your analysis and find even more scenes where Marc develops a reliable narrative voice. I love your wording and analysis of how Lilian Howan brings quiet moments or soft mentionings/ introductions of information full-circle in the culmination of the Marc's life. He adopts the unassuming Hakka's economical lifestyle, something we learn in the beginning of the tale, but which does not affect the protagonist until much later--you put it this way: "whenever a seed is planted by an author and later on you can see it bloom or it's importance that creates reason in which goes into relatability or believability." I think that Howan's soft mentionings and tiny anectordal information of characters, histories, and protagonist sensations and memories early on in the book prepares the reader and lays the ground-work/ foundation for the reliable narration to proceed.

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