How_Does_the_Narrator_of_Year_of_Wonders_Effect_the_Reading_of_the_Novel

In “Year of Wonders”, Geraldine Brooks’ novel of devastation set in the village of Eyam in 1966, the narrator, Anna Frith, has a large impact on the reading of the historically fictitious novel. The tone which the narrator takes is both harsh and honest. The fact that the reader is exposed to a female’s outlook throughout this time of peril in Eyam allows for an unfair biased. Finally, Firth’s position in society also creates a distorted reading of the text. Anna Firth’s acrid and candid tone and use of language throughout the narrative has an ample influence on the reader’s apprehension to Brooks’ novel. Anna’s tone and gruesome attention to detail as “George Viccars lay with his head pushed to the side by a lump the size of a new born piglet, a great, shiny, yellow-purple knob of pulsing flesh” Anna’s harsh and raw language makes the reader cringe and feel sympathetic towards Viccars untimely and painful demise. Anna’s descriptive anecdotes are once again seen in her telling of Josiah Bont’s excruciating death as “he begged in vain for mercy and howled like a trapped animal where the dagger cleft his skin” It may also be noted, from this quote, Brooks’ play on words as she describes Josiah “like a trapped animal” possibly in reference to his inhumane actions throughout the novel and being trapped into doing terrible things by the poverty the plague had caused in the village. As the protagonist of the tale Anna’s tone of voice and depiction of fellow characters are forced upon the reader, for example we feel distanced towards Josiah as Anna had “never heard a word of praise” from her father’s lips. Brooks’ intentions for this are quite clear; this subliminally causes the reader to take on Anna’s beliefs and convictions of each individual character and towards the tragic events of the plague. As Anna shows distance towards characters the reader will soon follow suit, as they similarly will with Anna’s emotions and ideas. As the protagonist describes the villagers as “wounded animals, our hurts so raw and our fear so great.” It is seen that the language Anna uses is very descriptive and dreary no matter the occasion her use of terms such as “voluntary besiegement” and a “gibbering, broken thing” when describing events allows for true feeling to sink into the readers mind; Brooks uses Anna’s words to draw very fine detail to the effects of the plague, and, in doing so, causes the reader to feel sympathy towards the inhabitants of Eyam. Although Anna’s language is twisted by Brooks to draw feeling towards the characters, not all of these feelings are of equal stature towards the separate genders of the village. Brooks’ use of Anna as the narrator in the novel creates an unfair biased towards females in the text. Throughout the novel it is evident that the “Year of Wonders” is also a tale of the need and power of women in times of uncertainty. 17th century Eyam was a time of gender inequality where men possessed all the power in the village and women were almost seen as the glue that held family life together and kept the household in tact, however, in the novel, the women are bought out of their shells and become the main source of courage during Eyam’s most catastrophic time. Brooks’ use of Anna as the protagonist and a heroine in the novel proves this. As Anna grows and comes out of the woodwork as a strong woman it is noted by others in the town and the derogatory view of women at the time is highlighted as men think that Anna likes to “come and go without a man’s say-so”. Men in Brooks’ novel are painted as two-dimensional characters with no real focus played on any of their grief or pain at the time of the plague; Brooks focuses on their negative actions, as seen with Josiah Bont and Michael Mompellion’s treatment of Elinor. Although most males in the text are seen as poor human beings George Viccars is viewed as “different from all those men who look you over like beef at a saleyard”, as Anna describes Viccars in this light, the reader believes he is a genuinely good man, one of very few in this story of powerful women. In the novel we see Anna face her fears as she goes into the mine where her husband faced his death, it is evident from this that women in the text show the most growth as Mompellion states “I wonder if you know how much you have changed”. The reader sees women go from strength to strength and admire those in the town such as Anys Gowdie as “she was a rare creature and I had to own that I admired her for listening to her own heart rather than having her life ruled by others’ conventions”. The women took charge in healing and caring for those effected by the plague and “saw our work as having two natures: the one, to ease the suffering of the afflicted, and the other, more important but far less certain in its outcome, to bolster the defence of the well.” It is in this that the reader feels a strong sense of women leadership in the village. Anna Frith’s position in society also creates a prejudice towards the rich. As Brooks’ novel is told from the eyes of a simple servant who has access to both the life of a poor woman and the life of the rich in the village of Eyam the reader is drawn to feel negatively towards the wealthy of the village. Brooks’ is quick to make her protagonist a servant and her antagonists the rich, as seen with the Bradfords as “All of us in the church that day gave their oath to God that we would stay, and not flee, whatever might befall us. All of us, that is, except the Bradfords.” Although “wealth and connection are no shield against the plague” those who are from the aristocracy believe they have the power to take flight from the plague and survive. The reader is made to feel sorry for the poor villagers of Eyam as they have no choice but to stay, which is outlined when Anna states “I would stay because I had small will to live – and nowhere else to go”. During the time of quarantine the impecunious village of Eyam and its inhabitants show their true will to survive and aid one another as “those who have the most give the least, and those with less somehow make shrift to share”. The plague, as negative as it was, bought out the good in the less fortunate villagers, Brooks may have done this to allow for a negative shadow to be cast over the rich in the village as they took flight from the plague, structurally the rich never stood a chance in the readers mind as Brooks sabotaged their virtues with carelessness and selfishness. Anna Frith, The narrator of the novel, ‘Year of Wonders’ by Geraldine Brooks has an illustrious effect on the reading of the novel. Brooks uses the tone of the character to embed a harsh and honest emphasis in the readers mind creating both judgment and understanding of individual characters. The femininity carries through the novel to compose a strong female biased on the telling of the 1966 plague in Eyam. Anna Frith’s servant status in the village and her ability to gage with the aristocracy of the time also allows for prejudice in the reading of Brooks novel and judgment to be made on the social status of those in the village. Therefore, it can be said, that the narrator of Brooks’ novel has a substantial impact on the reading of the text.