Natalia Ginzburg is a very relatable author. As an Italian writer, she definitely would have different cultures and values than her readers that are not Italian, but because her works evolve around such fundamental emotions that are shared by readers of all backgrounds, the feelings described in the book were personally very applicable to my own experience. Here are the three techniques she used that helped her achieve that goal, in my opinion.
These three phrases jumped out of the book after reading her works. Her essays are not only full of small, intriguing details, but also very humorous, but in a very casual way. Last but not least, her works are not filled with explicit emotions, yet the essays are very emotional indeed.
These characteristics are well presented in Winter in the Abruzzi. The sentence "every evening we walked arm in arm, sinking our feet into the snow" (Ginzburg 4) greatly illustrated how Ginzburg used details and blankness to present emotions. By writing this small depiction of a daily activity she and her husband did in the winter, their closeness and connections are immediately portrayed through this childlike, romantic and heart-warming scene. She did not explicitly describe their relationships, but by showing these details from a sideway, the love of this relationship is strongly confirmed by reader's interpretation and how it related to themselves.
"The dressmaker divided the world into two groups - those who comb their hair and those who do not comb their hair" (Ginzburg 5) illustrates the sense of humour Ginzberg possessed. She bantered how the dressmaker used this very simple, almost silly principle to differentiate people, thereby presented the simpleness of the people in Abruzzi. The people in Abruzzi also said to Ginzberg "'this isn’t the time for walking dear. Go back home'" (Ginzburg 6) when she was walking her children in the winter. This orderly tone is the same tone that a grandma would use when she told her grandchildren that they should eat as much as possible at Thanksgiving. "You should'n stop eating darling, you've only eaten so little!" These "orders" are being imposed on the author and the grandchildren, but all that would be felt is nothing but love and care. Even though the order givers may not necessarily understand the situation, these words are always out of a very pure motivation--love.
By using words that are true, relatable and humorous, Ginzberg did a great job conquering her readers' heart. These essays are written in such way that readers of all places would feel connected to and empathized with. Reading Ginzberg's essays is almost like having tea with an old good friend after a long separation. The works are very genuinely and beautifully written.
Natalia Ginzburg, author of The Little Virtues, has mastered the art of relating to her audience regardless of the country they are from, the devastating hardships they may or may not have faced, or the date in which the reader has picked up the novel, whether that is in the 20th century or the 21st. I encountered recurring instances within her short stories in which I could empathize with the scenarios she described; although I am not Italian, my life has not been interrupted by war, and I was born decades after Ginzburg first published this novel, I found it easy to apply her parables to my own experiences. This ability to make her stories resonate within readers of various backgrounds has been achieved by the author’s implementation of three techniques: the inclusion of a plethora of minute details that pull the reader into the stories, the use of humor to ebb the novel's melancholy ambience, and the author's ability to portray her emotions ambiguously, leaving them open to interpretation.
ReplyDeleteThe novel's first story "Winter in Abruzzi" encompass examples of detail, humor, and comprehensible emotion to create an intriguing introductory tale. Individual sentences have a tendency to acquire importance; the intimate imagery give the stories and their characters depth, enabling the reader to become immersed in early 20th century Italy. As a result, the world that Ginzburg lived in and writes about begins to feel less and less foreign to the reader, making it easier to relate to the stories. The sentence “…every evening we walked arm in arm, sinking our feet in the snow,” (4) is simple but is able to depict the pure, carefree love between Ginzburg and her husband. In focusing on the snow, the author illustrates the blankness of emotion; in this moment the couple was content, and no troubles plagued their minds.
(Only rewrote the first three paragraphs because if I had gone on to the fourth, my response would be 500+ words)