Chain of Hearts - Narrative Structure

The non-linear narrative structure, specifically the use of multiple narratives, is one of the most striking aspects of Maureen McCarthy’s novel, Chain of Hearts. By providing the reader with more than just Sophie’s perspective, McCarthy’s audience is positioned to question the stories that each character describes. This is because the use of multiple perspectives allows for an understanding on the part of the reader that there is often more than one side to a story.

1. Which characters speak to us directly in the first-person? Why?

2. The backcover blurb suggests that Sophie is the main character of the book. Do you agree? How important is Fran?Is it significant that hers is the only voice we hear directly for almost the first quarter of the book?

 

3. Are the voices of Sophie and Fran different? Can you identify language features in Sophie’s narrative that you do not find in Fran’s?

4. We are almost three-quarters of the way through the book before we come to a chapter that is from Geraldine’s point of view, even though it is third-person narrative (pages 287-315). Does this chapter change our understanding of Geraldine? If so, how?

5. The climax of the novel – Sophie’s return, Geraldine’s confrontation of Fran and the fire that destroys the house – is narrated in the third-person. What reasons might Maureen McCarthy have had for avoiding first-person at this point?

6. The final pages of the novel are first-person narrative. Unlike everything that has gone before, they are also written in the present tense. What is the effect of the use of present tense in this last scene, when Sophie goes to visit the Duong family?

The answers to your questions need to be completed and posted onto your blog by no later than Friday morning. Please aim to utilise evidence in your answers and write effective sentences/paragraphs for your responses. It should not be completed in dot point form.