BRITISH WRITERS

A Little Place Off The Edgware Road.

-GRAHAM GREENE-

Group3: 1. Mohd Ikhwan Haiqal Ismail 2. Muhammad Amar Akmal Ahamad Khalid 3. Nur Anisa binti Ibrahim Gani 4. Thurga d/o Ab Krishenan

HOW ARE THE MAIN CHARACTERS PRESENTED?

Use Of Narration / Point Of View Greene writes in the 3rd person rather than giving us the ultimate insight into Cravens head by writing in the 1st person. This also gives us a certain distance from Craven and this is much like real life as we always feel a certain distance from mad-people mostly because we are not mad ourselves. He was aware all the time of the stringy tie beneath the mackintosh, and the frayed sleeves: he carried his body about with him like something he hated.

Introduction And The Selected Scene

In the first two paragraphs, the narrator sets the scene. this prepare the reader for the events that unfold? In the first paragraph we are given the impression that he is a solitary, lonely character. We know this because when we meet him it is 'only just after lighting-up time' and this is the time when it just starting to get dark and most people are just about to go out for a good time. But not Craven. He stares bitterly at the cars on their way for a good time. We wonder why he has no home to go to. Later in the story he becomes aware that his breath might be foul, "but who could he ask?" Craven clearly has nobody in his life, any family or friends.

 Craven came up past the Achilles statue in the thin summer rain. It was only just after lighting-up time, but already the cars were lined up all the way to the Marble Arch, and the sharp acquisitive Jewish faces peered out ready for a good time with anything possible which came along. Craven went bitterly by with the collar of his mackintosh tight round his throat: it was one of his bad days. (paragraph 1) All the way up the park he was reminded of passion, but you needed money for love. All that a poor man could get was lust. Love needed a good suit, a car, a flat somewhere, or a good hotel. It needed to be wrapped in cellophane. He was aware all the time of the stringy tie beneath the mackintosh, and the frayed sleeves: he carried his body about with him like something he hated. (There were moments of happiness in the British Museum reading-room, but the body called him back.) He had lain in bed and remembered as tidings of great joy"--that the body after all was corrupt. (paragraph 2)

Language & Description

Craven is also losing his faith in God. He asks himself, "Why should he be asked to believe in the resurrection of this Craven, is obsessed about the human body's impurity, ending up in insanity. His separateness from the rest of society is strongly emphasized, Greene also shows Craven as being an envious character. He hated them, and hated his hatred because he knew what it was, envy. He was aware that everyone of them had a better body than himself: indigestion creased his stomach: he felt sure that his breath was foul but who could he ask? Sometimes he secretly touched himself here and there with scent: it was one of his ugliest secrets. .Page 176.

Use of Characterization
In 'A little place off the Edgware Road' there are two characters. We learn the name of only one of these characters and the other remains unnamed throughout the story. By not naming one of the characters we see him as more mysterious and it helps us to realise at the end that he is just a figment of Craven's imagination.