Just did an analysis of my own writing, A Seasonal Life, to try to get a better feel of its substance or lack thereof as a critic rather than a writer. This is a very, very large part of being a writer, and one that is often the most difficult to learn; to step away, put down the pen and pick up a red pencil.
Analysis of “A Seasonal Life”.
Linear Narrative of one single day but includes an approximate 20-year building of first person POV narrator’s character and her self perception through her reflections and attitude.
Story Line is a personal tour through narrator’s day, starting with the narrator’s self reflection in the early morning, interaction with family as she wakes them and they go off, plot advanced by her day’s routine–self-awareness and attitude within each small act—facing her mother-in-law, alone time at the library, family dinner, and minor crisis of family confrontation.
Theme is of dramatic irony in narrator’s misconception of herself within family unit, caused by her own guilt.
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Narrator carries burden of feeling that her life as it is (good) with her family only came about because it was created through a pregnancy that she believes forced her husband to marry her. She overcompensates by devoting herself to their well being and their will, without realizing that they believe she is strong and loving and they depend upon her and are unaware of her driving need to please them. Her husband, William, had totally accepted the marriage when it happened, loves and depends upon her, and is simply not a demonstrative person—at least not enough to fulfill and overcome her self-doubts, mainly because he is unaware of them and she’s too afraid to have ever questioned him about it. Her daughter Sarah becomes more aware of her mother’s tenseness as she reaches her teenage years, and the natural self-absorption of this life stage and need for male approval is more what causes her to seek validation of her busy father’s love than any sense of inadequacy or need for competition with her brother. Her mother has misread this as well. Minor characters of sons Christopher and Joshua are well adjusted and happy. William is as well, and the ending scene indicates that had his wife ever needed or called upon him, he would most certainly have been there for her. Unaware of her feelings, he was grateful to be able to go through life trusting her, and believing her to be the sun around which she kept the planets orbiting—the family structure.
Resolution is her realization of what her family unit truly consists of, including her husband’s love and concern.
Symbolism is seen in the paisley tie which shows the difference in the husband/wife personalities and how she sees the tie that her husband does not accept as herself.
The Trilogy—organization and relation to different stories or lives to each other and as a whole. Watership Down rabbits as a fantasy adventure or need for release of guilt and responsibility.
Ice cream white Camero—where the family was started, in good, pure and innocent love.
Morning activity of the family as an orchestrated ballet; an act the narrator is aware of, but misconstrues as to her part in it.
Narrator goes around second-guessing her family’s actions, often incorrectly. Although she believes herself responsible for all of them and is doing her damnedest to make everything happen right for them, she would do just as well without needing guilt to drive her. She’s a normal loving mother.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology