The Stone Diaries

Stone Diaries

Narrative Voice in the Stone Diaries

The Stone Diaries is the fictional autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett, who through the course of the novel is both struggling and seeking to find a sense of contentment in her life, despite never having truly understood what her life's purpose is supposed to be. The novel also presents its reader with a challenging narrative puzzle to unfold: the extraordinary violations of storytelling conventions including rapid shifts between first and third person narration, but also a first-person narrator who both recounts details of her birth to which she could not realistically have access (Weese, 2006, pp. 90). These shifts and changes give the book a much more meaningful look into a character who is essentially just trying to find meaning herself.

So much can be gleaned, for instance, in viewing the following passage from the text itself: "You might like to believe that Daisy has no gaiety left in her, but this is not true, since she lives outside her life as well as inside" (Shields, 1993, pp. 123). In this small passage, readers are ale to understand the presence of both a focalized and an unfocalized voice. The focalized voice, which can enter the minds, hearts, and souls of its character, is often present on many emotional levels and seeks to establish any distance or nearness to that level. This voice is used to articulate thoughts in a way that a character would not, imitating a character's thoughts directly in a way that allows an outside voice to establish a number of relations with the character from judgmental irony to empathy.

In the case of The Stone Diaries, this focalized voice is present with an alarming sense of empathy. This voice is Daisy and it is not at the same time. In the passage at hand, the focalized voice has the ability to look down upon Daisy in an observant way, understanding her present situation as well as all she is mentally and emotionally capable of doing. This voice has the ability to enter into Daisy's character from the inside-out, reaching her innermost thoughts and desires -- the things Daisy knows she can do but would never express vocally to the outside world. This voice understands all that Daisy has endured and understands what is left to endure for her to come full-circle. The focalized voice in this passage allows the reader to see much deeper into Daisy's person than could ever be seen if we as readers were only able to witness this character's outward actions and conversations. Like the old saying, "still waters run deep," Daisy is a character that is much more complex than one would initially believe if you just take a deeper look.

The unfocalized voice is also present in viewing this passage. This voice speaks apart from other characters, as kind of a voice-over. This voice varies infinitely. It can be factual to judgmental, casual, philosophical, perplexed, empathetic, etc., just like its character. The unfocalized voice is itself a character -- just one without a body. The narration of the unfocalized voice can be construed to be disembodied, but it is fully voiced, fully human, and fully various. Additionally, being directly unattached from its character, the unfocalized voice has a free range of movement in its narration.