isa-normaladvance-1909-00100

Description:	100THE NORMAL ADVANCEloses. Then one boy, brighter than the rest,presents the group with an original historicalnovel of dog life and dog fights. In it, theactual happenings play a great part, but hispurpose is different from that of the first narrator, the crowd. He idealizes a dog character,and emphasizes the action of dogs in generalby his all-embracing dog hero. This doublepurpose is evidently Scotts purpose in TheTalisman. In a sentence, Scott intends tointerest his reader in a great figure, in greatactions, and to stimulate a healthy regard forpublic life.Last of ally this group of young sportsmendiscuss the breeds, and ways of training dogsof the hero type, while one boy, not forcefulenough to enter this discussion, explains tothose who will listen, the causes of the yellowcur type. The aim of this last discussion,with the aims of the first and second subordinated to it, makes up the purpose of themodern historian. While Green in his History of the English People attempts to satisfythe craving for facts in regard to people andevents, and to celebrate the heroes, his chiefpurpose is to explain causes and results, thussuggesting a path for future use.Just as the short rough sentences of the firstboy narrators shade off into the vivacious toneof the story teller, which, in turn, changes intothe graver manner of the discussion on dogbreeding, so the style of Malory with is hurrying movement, that has now and then to goback and pick up a thought which was skipped,shades into the even, rapidly moving sentencesof Scott which keep the.incidents of the storyup to the point and properly suggest what is tofollow. And they, in their turn, shade into themore complex sentences of Green. Malory seesrelations between objects in the external world,and expresses what he sees in simple sentences,or in compound sentences, in which the relationbetween the parts is one of addition. Greengoes further. He sees the relation of histhoughts about external things to other external things and to each other. To express thisthe complex sentence and the compound sentence, in which the relation between the partsis other than that of addition (opposition, alternation, etc.) are necessary. The formalstructure of Scotts sentences is very similarto that of Green, the reasons for this varyingonly as feeling and judging differ.There is an element though, a way of thinking, that the two later writers possess, thatboys talking of dog fights have no equivalentfor. This is the power to analyze their ownfeeling and judgment in regard to the subjectbefore them. Scott throws over his charactersthe glamour of his own personal knowledgeand feeling, and does it consciously. Moreaccurately, he analyzes his own feelings in regard to a person, or an event, doing it so skilfully that the reader unconsciously accepts it,especially since he has prepared a characterabout which his reader is inclined to thinkthe same things, if thought could be found,adequate to express the feeling, by anyoneexcept the author- After producing a character he often tells how the reader ought to feelabout it, and what he ought to think. Thenthe reader must feel that Scott is conscious ofthe effect he is producing. Green expresses hisopinion in regard to the character of a personin history, or on a public act, at the same timegiving his reasons for it in such a way thathis reader usually agrees with him but oftenerhe expresses no definite opinion only giving hisreaders an analysis of the causes and resultsof the action of event, thus leaving the material properly prepared for framing an opinionon any phase of the question that might arise.For example, in the discussion of Wyclif andthe Lollard movement this author presents ashort biographical sketch of the man and suggests that at the time of his entrance intopublic life Wyclif had no fair estimate of hisown strength or of the influence he was boundto exert. No real opinion is expressed, butthere are few questions of a general nature inregard to the condition of the people and thestate of the country at that time that the readercould not discover for himself after a carefulconsideration of the discussion which follows.
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/34130
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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