The structural elements in literature such as a narrative are important in analyzing the meaning of the piece of work. On the other hand, the image in a narration represents the figurative language that stands for objects, ideas, and actions that best appeals to the physical senses of the readers. Structural elements, sometimes referred to as the stylistic devices are important in analyzing the texts hence enhancing meaning on the reader or the audience. Examples of structural elements include metaphor, hyperbole, personification, repetition, and parenthesis among others. Prison narratives give important insights on the various perspectives of life in the prison. The narratives are endowed with a number of images and structural elements that are helpful in enhancing their meaning to the audience.
The first structural element that has been effectively employed in the narratives is dialogue. It is a literary technique where two or more characters engage in a conversation with each other. Mostly in many kinds of literature, it is defined as a conversational passage where two persons talk about a particular subject. The purpose of a dialogue is to make a literary work lively and enjoyable. Most of the prison narratives are based on dialogue. A good example is ‘’The Return of the Prisoner’’ where the returning prisoner engages in a conversation with his wife and the children. He asks his wife, ‘’when did you buy the house?’’ and the wife answers back ‘’we didn’t buy it already built’’ (Al Nasiri, n.d). A similar case is witnessed in Ana Blandiana’s ‘’The Open Window’’ where the painter and the jailer engage in a conversation. ‘’The jailer asks, ‘’what’s going on here?’’ and the painter replies, ‘’I opened a window’’ (Blandiana, n.d).
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As stated earlier, imagery is a narrative element that is used to describe an event or a happening that appeals to the five senses. It is built on literary devices such as metaphor and simile to draw comparisons between two similar phenomena. The short story ‘'Release'' by Xiaoda Xiao is a classic example of a prison narrative that has effectively taken use of imagery through the use of similes. An example is when the narrator asserts that ‘’she looked at me with a wooden stare, like that of the tall man who had arrested me five years ago’’ (Xia, 1992). Bruce Franklin’s narrative called ‘’The Inside Stories of the Global American Prison’ has also used imagery especially in the form of a simile to explain the situations in the American prison. ‘’Like these ‘’enemy combatants,’’ American prisoners are also widely imaged in popular culture as agents of terror (Frankline, 2008).
The third element of narrative that is commonly used in the prison narratives is the symbolism. In literature, symbolism is a figure of speech where a person, situation, or object has a different meaning other than its literal one. The text uses language that has a deeper meaning which must be analyzed properly. ‘’The Open Window’’ by Ana Blandiana is a perfect example of a narrative that has effectively used symbolism to decipher its meaning. ‘’You painted a window, you scum! It’s not a real window. You can only imagine that it is a real window’’ (Blandiana, n.d). The window in the prisons is symbolically used to describe the barrier between the outside world and the life in jail. In the narrative, ‘’Conversion and the story of the American Prison’’ by Simon Rolston uses the Christianity context to create symbols such as ‘’Evangelical Christians describe as a process of being born again’’ which means changing from an old self into a new self ( Rolston, 2011).
The prison narratives are important especially in a situation where the lawbreakers will never be incarcerated. It gives the audience a glimpse of the deplorable life in the prison hence making people in the general population to shy away from committing crimes that would otherwise make them end up in prison. The three most common image and structural elements used in the prison narratives include dialogue, symbolism, and imagery. All these enhance the understanding of the content in the texts.
References
Al Nasiri B. (n.d). The return of the prisoner, short stories of the Arab World. Cairo Press.
Blandiana A. (n.d). The open window. Review of contemporary fiction.
Frankline B. (2008). The Inside Stories of the Global American Prison. University of Texas Press.
Rolston, S. (2011). Conversion and the story of the American prison. Critical Survey , 23 (3). Pp 103-118.
Xiao X. (1992). Release. The Atlantic Monthly.
