The Message of a Literary Work
The theme of the book implies the problem which the writer raises. His view and attitude to this problem is revealed in the way he develops the theme of the story. The most important idea that the author expresses in the process of developing the theme is the message of the book. The theme is therefore organically connected with the author’s message.
The message is generally expressed implicitly, i.e. indirectly, and has a complex analytical character, being created by the interaction of numerous implications which the different elements of the literary work have. It is only by analysis of those implications that one may reveal the message of a literary work. Therefore, the message of a literary is not something that is stated in a particular sentence and easily located; it is something that is comprehended upon reflection.
An important feature of literary texts which distinguishes them from other kinds of persuasive discourse is the fact that they operate not through direct statement and explicit revelation of their contents but instead through indirect allusion, understatement, implication, and even concealment. Literary texts in effect often veil the “truth” which they seek to convey in an attempt at enhancing its attractiveness and endowing it with a sense of mystery and transcendental value.
Literature, much like modern advertisement, is often an attempt at persuasion which operates on subliminal levels and artfully instills its message by concealing it under a cover of fictional situations and devices affecting the audience on emotional, intuitive, experiential, and instinctive levels. A given story, for example, may seek to promote a particular view of the world not by flatly stating it but instead by constructing a set of emotionally charged and seemingly “realistic” situations leading to the almost unavoidable, but always unstated, conclusion of the story’s intended moral.
Literary texts thus convey meaning to their readers in ways which go far beyond the mere literal or “surface” level of signification. Indeed, literary texts distinguish themselves from other texts by the subtleties and intricacies of their many levels of meaning and by the common fact that the actual “meaning” of the text is almost always implicit in the fabric of the work’s devices. Meaning in literature is therefore something that needs to be determined not merely on the basis of a face value understanding of the words in it but through a complete evaluation of the signifying complexity of the rhetoric, figures of speech, images, symbols, allusions, connotations, suggestions, and implications of the entire text.
Implication is the suggestion that is not expressed directly but understood. Implication may be conveyed by different techniques, such as parallelism, contrast, recurrence of events or situations, artistic details, symbols, arrangement of plot structure, etc.
Parallelism may be deeply suggestive. It invites the reader to compare the actions. Events which begin and end a story sometimes parallel. This circling of the action back to its beginning implies that nothing has changed and this may be the whole point as, for instance, in Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy. The closing scene returns the reader to the opening scene. This circling of actions suggests and emphasizes that nothing has improved, and Clyde’s nephew Russell starts his way to the American Dream that is doomed to become his American tragedy.
Implication may be conveyed by contrast on different levels: linguistic and extralinguistic. The implication may be conveyed by the contrast between the impression that the protagonist tries to produce and the impression s/he actually produces. The contrast may be further reinforced by the antithetical thematic planes of the vocabulary or/and suggested by the antithesis in the title.
Recurrence (or repetition) is another means of conveying implication. Among the repeated linguistic elements there may be stylistic devices, or emotionally coloured words, or even neutral words, but when repeated the latter may acquire special semantic relevance. The semantically relevant word need not be the most frequent one in the book. It is a well-known fact that functional words, such as “a”, “the”, “to”, “be”, generally recur most often, but they are not necessarily the most important words in the text. However, once a word or any element of the story is felt to be especially significant for the understanding of the whole, its recurrence acquires relevance in the context of the story. The repeated word (or phrase), even if it is a neutral one, may acquire emotional charge and become a key-word, important for the understanding of the message of the story. There often occurs semantic repetition, when one and the same idea is repeated, though every time it is formulated differently. The recurrent elements do not contain in themselves indications of what in particular their implications are. They acquire relevance and suggest implication only in the context of the book in which they occur.
Recurrence may be traced in the plot of any literary work. Though the events in the plot generally vary, they have a similarity in function – each of them brings the reader back to the central problem. In this sense writers fulfil contradictory demands: the demand for variation and the demand for recurrence. If a writer fails to fulfil the former, his story will be monotonous and uninteresting. If s/he fails to fulfil the latter, it will seem aimless and not directed at any definite message.
Implication is often suggested by the similar features in the varying scenes, and by the varying features in the similar scenes. The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch illustrates this means of conveying implication very well. No matter how different the episodes of the novel might seem to be, they reveal similar aspects of Bradley Pearson’s character: his self-centeredness, occasional rudeness and at the same time his sensitiveness, open-mindedness, and humanness.
Fiction provides many examples of recurrence with implication. Among them one often finds details. For instance, in Emily Brontё’s novel Wuthering Heights the “coldness” of the wind, the rain, and the tempestuous weather are artistic details. The neutral word “cold” acquires expressive force in the context of the novel and conveys deep implication. It suggests the life of rapid and dramatic change that the protagonists are unable to control.
When an artistic detail is repeated several times and is associated with a broader concept than the original, it develops into a symbol.
A symbol is a word (or an object the word stands for), which represents a concept broader than the literal sense of the word. It is therefore something concrete and material standing for something else that is immaterial and more abstract. A symbol is a metaphoric expression of the concept it stands for. Like the metaphor, it is based on the use of a word in its transferred meaning and suggests some likeness between two different objects or concepts. A reoccurring symbol can signify a motif in a book.
Among the most frequent symbols there are:
Birds can mean freedom;
Buildings can mean strength;
Cats can signify mystery;
City can represent civilization;
Feathers can signify lightness;
Fire can symbolize anger;
Plants can represent nature;
Snakes can mean danger;
Trees can represent steadfastness;
Water can symbolize life.
A motif could be expressed by a collection of related symbols. For example, the motif of fragmentation (of a family, for instance) could come from several symbols that appear in a book: shattered glass
an unfaithful spouse;
a runaway (pet, teen, car);
shattered glass;
an unfaithful spouse;
a runaway (pet, teen, car);
Sometimes a motif can be a contrast, like “light and dark.” A series of symbols that could represent this motif might be: moon shadows (shades of darkness):
a candle (a light in the darkness);
storm clouds (temporary darkness);
a ray of sunshine (emerging from darkness);
a tunnel (through the darkness).
Symbols may be traditional or personal. An example of a traditional symbol is a rose that stands for beauty: O my love’s like a red, red rose by Robert Burns, William Shakespeare’s sonnet 1 (“From fairest creatures we desire increase, // That thereby beauty’s rose might never die <…>”) or sonnet 54 (“The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem // For that sweet odour, which doth in it live”), Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale and the Rose.
A writer establishes personal symbols by means of repetition and repeated association with a broader concept. For example, in Rain by Somerset Maugham the rain is a symbol of the primitive powers of nature in the face of which a human being is powerless and all his efforts are useless and hopeless.
To use a symbol is to represent an idea by suggestion rather than by direct expression. The symbol is generally recognized only after the book is read. The so-called “shock of recognition” intensifies the effect.
Presupposition is also a means of conveying special implication. For example, it is a characteristic feature of contemporary fiction to begin a story at a point where certain things are already taken for granted. Thus the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller opens as follows: “It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him. Yossarian was in the hospital with a pain in his liver that fell just short of being jaundice. The doctors were puzzled by the fact that it wasn’t quite jaundice. If it became jaundice they could treat it. If it didn’t become jaundice and went away they could discharge him. But this just being short of jaundice all the time confused them.” The definite articles are indications of previous knowledge about the identity of the referents, although the reader can work them out only by reading on. The writer does not introduce Yossarian and his circumstances. Each of the definite articles alongside with the name of the protagonist carries a presupposition that the reader already shares the author’s knowledge about them. By this device the author sets up the world of the novel with its implications of the past right from the start, though the reader has to construct this world himself/herself while reading on. Presupposition creates implication and at the same time evokes the reader’s interest and heightens the suspense which is especially true for the paradoxically absurd opening sentences of Catch-22.
The author’s message does not lie on the surface. It is usually expressed implicitly and may be suggested by a variety of means – parallelism, contrast, recurrence, presupposition, artistic details, symbols. At times the writer raises urgent and relevant problems, the solution of which it is as yet difficult to foresee. His intention may not be to suggest a certain solution (the problem may hardly admit solution), the writer may intend only to raise the problem and focus the reader’s attention on it. In such cases the message of his literary work will not suggest any solution. It will pose the problem and reveal its relevance. Moreover, the message depends on the writer’s outlook, and the reader may either share the writer’s views or not. On account of all that, L.I. Timofeyev distinguishes the following types of messages:
messages that suggest definite solutions («идея-ответ»);
messages that raise a problem («идея-вопрос»);
messages in which the solution of the problem is not adequate («идея-ошибка»).
The author’s message is closely connected with the author’s attitude. A literary work “is not simply a fictitious record of conduct, but also a study and judgement of conduct <…>”. Even if the writer attempts to conceal his attitude by shifting the responsibility of storytelling on to a character in the story and assumes an impartial or detached tone, he cannot prevent his characters from evoking a definite attitude in the reader’s mind.
The message more often than not acquires definite shape in the process of deep thought about what the writer discovered when observing reality. It reflects his/her attitude to the represented aspect of people’s nature and relations, his understanding of the influence of social phenomena and convention upon the individual. Hence the message generally has an evaluative character.
The message of a literary work is inferred from the synthetic images created by the author and does not exist separately from them. The synthetic images embody the message. The protagonist, in particular, is often considered to represent the message itself. Therefore, it is mainly through the characters that the message is revealed. Besides, the message cannot be revealed without taking into account the message of the work, as well as the author’s attitude. When analyzing the message of a literary work one should consider its title.
The title is the first element to catch the reader’s eye, but its meaning and function may be determined only retrospectively. The title acquires a precise meaning when related to the whole book. It can acquire a totally different meaning, contrary to what its components generally mean. The title of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter illustrates that: initially it has a derogatory connotation (since it stands for adultery), but when related to the protagonist’s fate in the novel, it acquires a positive meaning, as Hester Prynne who wears the scarlet letter on her bosom, turns out to be a generous, kind-hearted, strong, and independent woman.
The literary work may clarify the meaning of one of the components of the title. In The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck “winter” appears to be not a season, but a period of moral decline and degradation, as it is also the case with “fall” (“autumn”) in The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe. In The Quiet American by Graham Greene “quiet” acquires an ironic ring, as the “quiet” Alden Pyle turns out to be vicious and brings a great deal of trouble and harm. The title may acquire a symbolic meaning. Thus the components in the title The Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham symbolize different sets of values.
Therefore, the title is another component that should be taken into account when the reader interprets the underlying content.
On revealing the message, the reader usually analyzes his/her own rational and emotional response to a literary work, draws his/her own conclusions. These conclusions may not necessarily coincide with the author’s message. That is why M.B. Khrapchenko and L.I. Timofeyev distinguish between the so-called objective message and the author’s message.
The objective message is the final conclusion that the reader draws from the analysis of his/her own response to the story and from the author’s message implied by it. The objective message may be broader than the author’s message, because it is based on more profound historical experience. Every new generation appreciate the literary works created a century or more ago in a new way, as every new generation possesses more information about the outcome of many historical processes than the authors of those works could foresee.
The effectiveness of the writer’s presentation of the message depends on how credible and exciting the plot of his book is, how lifelike and convincing the characters are, how expressive and varied the language is, how well the literary techniques.