Narrative Voices

I thought it would be interesting to point out the narrative voices used in some of our readings for this semester. Of course, The Reluctant Fundamentalist stands out as an obviously stylistic and contrived choice--not only is it in first person, but it is actively so, almost folkloric. It serves to truly--in my opinion--engage the reader (unless you're really bugged by the use of the second person). Also interesting to note was the narration in The Crooked Line. I notice, as I go back to pick up some noteworthy lines for my paper, that although it's written in third person, there is an undeniable presence of Shaman's inner voice. It sort of reminds me of Alice Munro's third person narratives; if you asked me what person they were written in, I couldn't tell you for certain, because the third person narrator is so close to the main character, it feels like first person. I think Chughtai's narration allowed us both this close association with Shaman and the luxury of a lyrical/poetic voice when we're not looking right at her.