Anna's Role as Narrator in Year of Wonders Phoebe Witts 12th Grade

First person narrators often serve as important additions to texts. This is the case in Geraldine Brooks’ Year of Wonders, where the intelligent, authentic voice of the central character Anna Frith added significantly to the story as she described places and people with reliability and consistency. Her balanced views and commentary on her own torrent of emotion throughout the plague year give readers an insight into the plague not replicable by third person writing, and her vivid descriptions of literary devices such as the weather or the nature surrounding her act as important symbols of the text consequently adding greatly to its overall meaning.

If it were not for Anna’s constant, detailed accounts of elements of the nature surrounding her, the text would lack greatly, as her descriptions so often emphasise key ideas of the novel. Weather is a primary example of this, as she reiterates that the plague begins in spring in the very first paragraph of “Spring, 1665” as she explains George Viccars arrived “in the following spring”. This, accompanied by the fact that the plague ended in “apple picking season”, acts to juxtaposition the horrific events of the plague year as the plague begins in the season of life and ends in “leaf...