The Focalization in the Narration of Revolutionary Road

XU Zi-qi

I. Introduction

Revolutionary Road reveals the spiritual stagnation，anxiety，and alienation common to modern men. This paper seeks to illustrate how the focalization strategies are demonstrated in the narration. The basis of the analysis is the theory of Rimmon-Kenan whose theory provided for us the frame in focalization analysis.

II. The Perceptual Facet

Perception could be understood as the presence of the focalizing agent in time and space，thus the observation and narration of the story is possible. In external focalization，the focalizer is not restricted by time and space. In Revolutionary Road，the narrator frequently shifts from the present to the past，and sometimes jumps from the present to the future，thus leaving the details in between narrated in analepsis. Such freedom of the narrator with time deserves our attention.

The whole text begins with the failure of the Laurel Players. “The final dying sounds of their dress rehearsal left the Laurel Players with nothing to do but stand there，silent and hopeless.”（Yates，3）Readers will be wondering who the Laurel Players are and what causes their failure. Their curiosity is naturally aroused and they would continue reading. It is after introducing the rehearsal failure that the background information is presented. The analepsis is based on a previous information gap. Here the gap is filled by the narrator-focalizer，who is free to see into the past.

Although a character in the story may narrate some past events，it is more appropriate not to credit it to the external focalizer，for it does not really involve his seeing，which is the essence of focalization.

III. The Psychological Facet

The Psychological facet is related to the focalizers knowledge of the cognition and emotion of the focalized. In Revolutionary Road，the focalizer obviously can see into the inner minds of characters and can focalize on the memories of Frank to introduce his past. After the analepsis which presents how the couple had had their first baby，his inner thoughts are further revealed.

And I didnt even want a baby，he thought to the rhythm of his digging. Isnt that the damnedest thing？ I didnt want a baby any more than she did. Wasnt it true，then，that everything in his life from that point on had been a succession of things he hadnt really wanted to do？ （Yates，53）

Here，direct discourse（DD），free direct discourse（FDD）and free indirect discourse（FID）are used in a succession for the presentation of thought. In the first sentence，the reporting clause “he thought to the rhythm of his digging” brings the focalization from the outward visible world to the inner mind of Frank. Then，the present tense of the second sentence and the subject “I” in the third suggest that they are FDD，which have the effect of directness and vividness and which shows that Franks thought now is the very object of focalization. This is to support that voluntary restriction of knowledge in external focalization is usually deliberately designed for some artistic effect.

IV.The Ideological Facet

The ideological facet of focalization is concerned with a system of worldview. The narrator-focalizer is expected to have an authoritative ideology，to which other ideologies are subordinate. Yet in Revolutionary Road，the focalizer seems to have refrained from betraying his judgment. In fact，the narration is basically objective and the narrator has not really intruded in to show his ideology. But it is true that ideology is a significant aspect of focalization. While the narrator-focalizer is generally neutral，he is careful enough to allow two different ideologies to clash to make readers ponder over the issue themselves.

After the death of April，Frank seldom appeared in the story except for being mentioned by Milly and Shep whose descriptions reflected their own value systems. For Milly，Frank was courageous in facing the tragedy and adjusting to the new situation. Yet Shep thought otherwise. “How could a man be courageous when he wasnt even alive？”（Yates，347）Their different value-schemes lead to their different understanding of the same events.

VI. Conclusion

Evidently，the focalizer of Revolutionary Road is a narrator-focalizer or external focalizer. While the ideology of the focalizer is seldom reflected in the story，there is a clash of value systems when same events are reported through two internal focalizers. So the story of this novel is presented through external focalization on the whole and multiple focalization in some minor places.

References：

[1] Yates，Richard. Revolutionary Road [M]. New York：Vintage Books，2008.

[2] Rimmon-Kenan，Shlomith. Narrative Fiction [M]. London and New York：Routledge，2005.

作者簡介：徐子淇（1994-），女，汉，湖北省武汉市，在读研究生，长春理工大学外国语学院外国语言文学专业，研究方向：英美文学。

（School of Foreign Languages，Changchun University of Science and Technology）