Narrative Interpretive Centers in Ray Bradbury’s Cistern: Exposing Internal and External Human Conflicts
Author(s): Abdullah H. Kurraz
Abstract:
In the light of the inevitable twinning of linguistic theory and literary critical interpretation and appreciation,
Ray Bradbury's narrative techniques constitute his thematic and aesthetic discourse. Bradbury’s stylistic
narrative discourse evokes a set of narrative tools through which characters communicate ideas, thoughts, and
feelings, creating aesthetic effects that appeal to readers. These blended artistic elements are interpreted in the
light of the theoretical fictional context of narrator-character, character-character, and narrator-reader
interactions. Exploring a web of narrative-characterization centers in Bradbury’s story Cistern, the paper
sheds light on the centers of the point of view, dialogic narrative technique, and thematic concerns that include
internal and external conflicts. Meantime, the paper draws on Gérard Genette’s analytical method of study of
narrative discourse, among others. Moreover, Bradbury's the mato-narrative techniques offer a modern
interpretative community for understanding his characterization centers and serve as a receptionist case study
for scholars and critics of modern literary criticism.