Williams’s intermittent use of subjective and objective narration centres the novel upon the discord between the individual’s thoughts, opinions and attitudes with that of the collective’s interpretations and assumed understanding, respectively, of the said individual: a perspective from Stoner and a perspective of Stoner. However, in analysing the Williams’s prose and the subject of communication the essay will centre specifically upon the author’s use of subjective, both limited and omniscient perspectives, and objective narration, with a focus upon the characterisation of Stoner himself. Williams’s proficient ability at constructing a narrative is categorised by John McGahern in his Introduction, as he notes Williams’s prose as ‘plain’, defined by its ‘clarity (xv): indeed, this essay, in part, will focus upon how this on how this outlined ‘clarity’ is achieved. In assessing the subject of communication, and how Williams imbues the theme through his narration, it is important to analyse the novel’s prose from a lexical level. Subsequently, it is due to this that an ‘identity’ of Stoner is formed by others, appearing outwardly passive and apathetic to both personal and national events alike, despite contemplating and evaluating these issues thoroughly throughout the novel. The theme of communication is most evident, however, when Stoner’s private thoughts remain unvoiced to those around him. Over the course of the novel’s narrative William Stoner survives his close friend Dave Masters, killed at ‘Château-Thierry’ (38), in 1918 his mentor and ‘distant friend’ (91), Professor Archer Sloane his stoic father and then his stalwart mother his father-in-law, Horace Bostwick, committing suicide in the wake of ‘financial ruin’ (113), in 1929 and his daughter’s husband, Edward Frye, the father to Stoner’s seldom-seen grandchild, Edward, whose death in 1942 reflects that of Dave Masters, as both men are killed within months of commencing their seemingly futile active service in war. The novel is populated by spectres, both principal and peripheral figures within Stoner’s life. At points throughout the text, the theme is presented in light of instances of war and conflict, with Stoner subsequently haunted by a sense of despair and grief. In addition to these themes, I wish to add the subject of communication, and the dichotomy for the individual when electing to either internalise or reveal one’s thoughts, specifically in the wake of the feeling of loss. In his introduction to Vintage’s 2012 publication of Stoner, John McGahern identifies two principle subjects that permeate the novel: the theme of work, and its variety of forms, and the enduring strength of love. In addition to this, it is ‘the home of the University’ (emphasis added) that Stoner is drawn to and his ultimate separation from his kin is finalised at the age of twenty-four, within ‘a matter of five minutes or so at the register’s office’ (17), following a prospective meeting with Archer Sloane, and is subsequently tied to the University for the majority of the next thirty-eight years (276), until his death, in 1956. It is from this encounter on his ‘sophomore survey of English literature’ (18) that Stoner, and while initially commencing his Bachelor studies at the University in Agriculture, in 1910 (1), ‘drops’ and interrupts (13) his ‘Ag’ modules in order to take up his interest in the humanities: beginning introductory courses in ‘philosophy and ancient history’ and, more significantly, ‘two courses in English literature’ (13). It is a question which remains unanswered by the silentious undergraduate. However, the undergraduate’s future is drastically altered from his predetermined route in life following an awkward class experience with Archer Sloane, an influential, yet tempestuous, instructor (8) who would later become a ‘distant friend’ (91), and the class’s subject of William Shakespeare’s S onnet 73 as Stoner is unable to respond to the professor’s enquiry of ‘What does he say to you, Mr Stoner? What does the sonnet mean?’ (12). The titular character of the novel is an academic whose familial origins stem from a ‘small farm in central Missouri near the village of Booneville, some forty miles from Colombia, the home of the University’ from this, William Stoner’s life is seemingly destined to be tethered to the post of the rural homestead, bound to his descendancy as a farmer. Stoner, John Edward Williams’s third novel, is, in essence, a eulogy: an ode to one man’s quiet life. An Analysis of John Edward Williams’s Authorial Craft
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