TEWWG, Framing Devices, And Storytelling

We've started reading Their Eyes Were Watching God, a book by Zora Neale Hurston, in English class. It's really good, but I'll get to that in a minute.

I like to think about the ways we tell stories, both to ourselves and other people. Oftentimes, the craft (or the method by which we tell a story) is just as important as the content -- if not moreso. Our gestures, our tone of voice, our excitement, and our expression are all of significance in the storytelling experience. That's why I so enjoy the literary trope of the framing device.

A framing device is a technique in which a secondary story "frames" a primary story, or a sort of justification for a story's existence. For example, in the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, the episodic events (the "primary story") are all framed within the context of Ted telling an absurdly long and increasingly unbelievable story to his kids (the "secondary story"). Within the primary story, other people tell shorter, tertiary stories. The show leverages its framing device in clever ways, allowing for unexpected plot twists and clever revelations.

Another example which I like is the tale of One Thousand And One Nights. There existed a cruel Arabian king who would marry a woman each day, spend the night with her, and have her executed in the morning. Lather, rinse, repeat. Seeing people slaughtered around her each day, a woman named Scheherazade came up with a plan to stop the insane ruler. She married the king and, on their wedding night, began to tell him an intriguing story, which she ended on a cliffhanger. Come next morning, the king decided to spare her for an additional night so he could hear the end of the story. The next night, Scheherazade concluded the story in the middle of the night, then immediately began to tell a different story, which she again ended on a cliffhanger. Lather, rinse, repeat, and before you know it Scheherazade had survived 1001 nights. At the end of it all, she told the king that she had no stories left and was ready to die -- but the king had fallen in love with her and kept her as his wife. Mission accomplished.

The stories told over the thousand and one nights include adventures like The Seven Voyages of Sinbad, Aladdin, and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. The story of the story of these stories is inspiring and exciting. In addition, there are other narratives characters in Scheherazade's stories tell (these would be "tertiary"). A story within a story within a story, and I love each level of it. (If you go down another story level, though, that's Limbo, which isn't a good place to be. Especially with your ex-wife.)

Similarly, the plot of Their Eyes Were Watching God is framed as a woman, Janie, telling a story to her friend Phoeby. The story weaves from first person to third person seamlessly; the former allows immersion in the 1900s America setting of the novel, while the latter delivers beautiful, poignant prose. (The question "Did marriage compel love like the sun the day?" resides in a top spot in my personal Best Sentences Ever hall of fame.)

TEWWG is a powerful look into race identity, black American culture, and the coming of age of a young woman. I recommend reading it.

-Me