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The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 1
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6. Talk about the book's structure.
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John
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Jan 14, 2016 03:10PM
6. Talk about the book's structure. Is it a continuous story...or interlocking short stories? Does the time-line move forward chronologically...or back and forth between past and present? Does the author use a single viewpoint or shifting viewpoints? Why might the author have chosen to tell the story the way he or she did—and what difference does it make in the way you read or understand it?
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The book is a continuous story moving forward linearly or at least it appears largely to be that the way. The view point shifts between what is happening to key characters and back again however Bao-yu is the centre point around which everything else revolves.
I agree with BW. One thing I found interesting was when the narrative shifted from the viewpoint of the anonymous omniscient narrator (Cao?) to the viewpoint of the Stone speaking out of the book directly to the reader.
Yes, and the first chapters set the stage for the plot to begin to unfold.
I like how the ending of the chapters introduce what will be happening in the next chapter.
There is the large frame of the creation myth, within which is the frame of the story of Bao Yu and the whole Jia clan. In the first book, there does not seem to be another frame about the political and social milieu in which the story is set.
