Chain of Hearts: The Narrative Structure

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

Sophie and Fran are the only people who speak in first person because they are the main characters and their personal perspective is what helps you get the main themes and ideas from the book, as they have the biggest connection to the readers. However when there are flashbacks to a different time period, especially in Fran’s case, they are in third person to give you a better idea of the full surroundings of the scene and what is happening so that you get the full idea instead of just her view of the situation.

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?

I do agree that Sophie is the main character because it is mainly her story that is being told, but Fran is also very important but her stories and her perspective help us understand and justify what is going on with Sophie so that we can see what it is actually happening, and not just the way that Sophie sees it. We hear Fran’s voice for almost the first quarter of the book because she is setting up the tension between her and Geraldine and then when it finally gets to Sophie’s perspective you can see how that tension has made its mark on Sophie and could have been part of the reason why she is the way she is. A quote to support Fran and Geraldine’s hatred for another is “I don't want any one least of all the teenage daughter of my enemy-sister! I’ll have to ring her back. Tell her in no uncertain terms. She hates me anyway, so why not?” (p.7). This quotation shows how Fran still hates her sister after all this time, and she also thinks that Geraldine hates her which may not be the case but because she thinks this she probably hates her more.

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?

Sophie and Fran’s voices are quite different particularly because of their age and the era and environment they grew up in. Sophie’s voice is very informal and is not very sophisticated, she uses a lot of modern words and she swears quite a bit, she also really expresses her emotions and feelings. Fran’s voice is a calm and she has a vast range of vocabulary used in her expressions. In Sophie’s voice you can feel more of a relation and a connection to her as her voice has a greater impact because of the emotions and hidden messages flooding through it. Where as Fran’s voice you just hear the story through her ways of communicating it and it still has an impact but not as large as Sophie’s which I think the author was trying to do. However in the flash back chapters of Fran when she was back in different time periods of the past she sounded a lot more like Sophie, probably because she was a lot younger. However this helps you see the connection from Sophie and Fran because Fran has the same kind of voice as Sophie does and you can see how they are actually quite alike.

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?

All these significant and important to the books story line were written in third person so that the reader could actually understand what was going on more clearly and also so that the reader does not get a biased perspective or view of just one character. Also because the novel has switched in and out of third and first person with different characters, the author has probably written this section in third person because then the readers would not be so confused as to who was speaking when very crucial elements of the story are happening and the author does not want the readers to miss any key concepts of the novel.

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 effect of using present tense at the end of the novel is to show and communicate the idea that you have been on this journey with Sophie and you have watched her develop and grow and re-live memories, and now you are here at the Duong family with her. It also provides a nice ending and conclusion to the novel, because in the very beginning of the book it was present tense and then it is again at the end. So it helps the reader acknowledge that it is the end of the novel because the whole novel has been the reflection on her life at this moment in time.