Stone Bonner
Donna Tartt’s language at the end of the prologue portrays the up and down nature of Richard’s life and the lives of the group of students, with the hopes being so high, and the results being so low. Tartt uses language in this passage such as, “piling in the car gratefully”, “like a family on vacation”, and “talking like children” to represent the joy and excitement of the characters (Tartt 4). The first chapter starts off with seemingly a low point in Richard’s life, but his spirits are lifted when thinking about Hampden University and the life that he wants to live. Looking at the brochure he received, he starts to think of his ideal college experience with dark silent libraries and picturesque views. Hampden seems like the perfect place for Richard to be himself and live a lifestyle relating to dark academia. Things continue to go well as he gets there and gets involved with the exclusive Greek group. He seems to be living the life that he wanted for himself away from the constraints of being at home in California. These are all part of the highpoints so far in the novel for Richard which unfortunately lead to the low points. Donna Tartt uses descriptive language in this part of the novel and throughout to demonstrate the up and down nature of the lives of the students at Hampden, similar to that of a roller coaster.
Donna Tartt also uses language displaying the dark side of the story in this passage. She says things like, “the long terrible days and nights that followed”, “a picture that will never leave me”, and “this is the only story I will ever be able to tell” to reference the beginning of the story talking about the death, and the impacts that it had after the fact (4). We don’t get any information as to what happens or how it happens in these chapters, but the prologue sets the tone for the novel and creates a different way of looking at the story. Because we are told these things in the very beginning, we will try to figure out why this happened as we read the book instead of just reading and figuring out the story as it is told. This can make us read into little moments and interactions with the characters much more than we would have previously as a way to come to a solution on what happened.
I think that the prologue is very important to the story and how it is read and interpreted. The up and down nature of these first few chapters is compelling and makes the readers attempt to come up with solutions as to what could’ve happened or why it could’ve happened. By the way these chapters have gone so far, it is not entirely clear who would’ve wanted to do this to Bunny, but there are some theories that could have credibility. One is that Henry was the one who wanted to kill him, and this is based on Bunny’s reliance on Henry for money and other things like that to help him. Having Bunny depend on him could have pushed him over the edge to end it altogether.
Overall, the prologue and this passage in particular stand out from the chapters of the novel because it gives the reader a highlight of the story without knowing any of the details and drastically changes the lens through which the audience views the novel. Without this part, the reader would start in chapter one with the very beginning of the story, having no idea what could be coming next. Starting with this at the very beginning, however, gives the audience one of the biggest scenes and what the plot of the book was based around. We now wonder how these events they are reading could lead to this dramatic event that they read at the start. This is why the prologue and this passage are so important. It draws people in with one of the very low points of the group, and then starts the novel with a high point, with Richard having high hopes of going to Hampden University and then his growing interest in the Greek group at the school. This instant and considerable change of pace of what’s going on in the story also makes the prologue stand out, and relates back to the point of the unstable, uncertain future for the characters in the novel and how much it changes throughout.
Tartt’s language has a large influence on how the story and characters are perceived, and it’s interesting to think about how a change in diction could have an impact on how readers view the story and characters. This is the power that authors have to control a story and the reader’s emotions throughout. Overall, Donna Tartt uses many different good and bad things in the story to keep readers interested, and this language is powerful.
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