A Reader Response to My Cousin Clerette by Budge Wilson

The presentation of setting in Budge Wilson’s story My Cousin Clarette constructs curious plots. The story tells about a woman named Victoria, the main character who saw her cousin named Clarette in 1984 in the Dundas station of Yonge Street subway. She saw that Clarette seem to be sad. Her view brought her memories of childhood with Clarette in her place in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in 1954. When they were child, Clarette’s parents were in divorce process, thus, she was living with Victoria’s family. Clarette often bullied Victoria. Although that is so, Victoria was still good to Clarette. In the end of the story, she failed to speak with Clarette in the train because Clarette has gone. The story is narrated through flashback (analepsis) by narrator. In my view, the strategy exhibits Wilson’s ingenuity to challenge the reader not to simply enjoy the story but also to think about how the strategy used in the story and indirectly guiding the reader to know what its functions, thus, bringing the reader to have various feelings.

Clearly the opening of My Cousin Clarette tells about where the story was taking place and when it was happened. It was in “the Dundas station of the Yonge Street Subway” and in “1984” year. The showing place and time in the story may help the reader to create imagery of in which kind of place and time Victoria and Clarette stand. The imagination can be related to the reader’s knowledge of the Dundas station either at this time or in 1984. If the reader does not have the background knowledge of the time and the place before, he/she may try to image it through relying on the narration of time and place by the narrator of the story. For example, Victoria who is also the narrator said that “…the crowd was multiplying, because the train was obviously overdue” (pp.98). In my view, what she said helped me to imagine how the condition described. The reader can also know about how the events in the story time were happened. One of examples is that the event is occurred at the same time and place. It is at 11:00 A.M. at the Dundas station in which Victoria “leaned against the wall” (pp.97), the train was oncoming and Clarrete  “stood in her high heeled-boots, at platform,…” (pp.97).

However, the opening leaves the reader questions about what the events in the past and next in the story. I feel curiosity of why Victoria felt “a familiar irritation” (p.98) when she contemplated Clarette because in my opinion the word “familiar” used by Victoria indicates that she have felt it before. According to Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary the word “familiar” means “easy to recognize because of being seen, met, heard, etc. before”. Moreover, the other curiosity is whether Victoria speaks to Clarette or not because the end of opening is hanging on –“if Icould make myself do it” (p.98).

The question comes because there is setting movement to the earlier setting from the current story called flashback or analepsis. According to Genette, analepsis is when “the narrator recounts after the fact an event that took place earlier than the present point in the main story.” (Guillemette and Lévesque: 2011). The analepsis is indicated by what narrator said “I am back in Luxemberg, Nova Scotia, and it is 1954” (pp.98). The analepsis is delivered after the current story. This kind of analepsis is called internal analepsis because the anachrony—non-chronological order—falls within the range of the primary story line (Jahn: 2002).

The analepsis leads the reader to Victoria’s childhood with Clarette. Victoria recounts that she was enthusiastic to Clarette’s arrival in her family because she “want a larger family” (pp. 99). Clarette would live with them as long as the process of her parents’ divorce. Victoria was always good to Clarette and admiring her even though she often bullied Victoria. In my view, why Clarette did it to Victoria is probably because her family condition. It is supported by Clarette’s answer to Victoria’s question about Clarette’s parents. She said “They’re awful…I hate them” (p.105). Probably, Clarette’s ill is acted to Clarette.

Victoria’s memory helps the reader to answer the question of “familiar irritation”. To me, why she feels like that, it is because what Clarette has done to her in the past. Clarette was not only in same home and room with Victoria but also she was in same school with Victoria. She could made Victoria’s friends impressed to her –“Clarette managed to radiate such delight…she has added four more slaves to her collection.” (p.105)– It makes Victoria “embrace jealousy like a lover” (p.105).

The closing succeed to answer the reader’s question about Victoria’s plan to speak to Clarette. The closing is narrated after the narrator finished told the past events. The closing is the continuation of the current story of My Cousin Clarette. Victoria failed to speak to Clarette because she was dead when Victoria got closed with her. She committed suicide. It is clearly narrated by Victoria: “…she stepped off the platform into the path of the oncoming train. No one pushed her, either on purpose or accidentally” (p.109).

In conclusion, I like the way Wilson wrote the story even though the theme of the story is simply that is about jealousy. I like the placement of the analepsis because it gives different tensions of the story. I mean that when I feel passionate of what would be Victoria did to Clarette, that feeling is postponed with some questions. Then, my tension is changed to be following Victoria’s memories when childhood. My feeling that was curious in the beginning is changed to feel irritation by Clarette too as Victoria. Then, in the end my feeling is rechanged to be sympathy to Clarette because she committed to suicide.

References:

Guillemette, Lucie and Cynthia Lévesque. Narratology. 20 November 2011

<http://www.signosemio.com/genette/narratology.asp>

Jahn, Manfred. Narratology: A Guide to the Theory of Narrative. 2002. 20 November 2011

<http://www.welchco.com/02/14/01/60/02/04/1001C.HTM>

Walter, Elizabeth, ed. Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Cambridge University Press. Version 3.0. 2008

Wilson, Budge. My Cousin Clarette and Other Stories. Australia: University of Queensland Press, 1994.