🌹The Rose & Skull ☠️

A Tricky Narrative

Narrators & Puppets

The following chart uses Wayang figures and regressive puppetry to suggest the narrative and political layers in the novel. The puppet gets pulled by a string, a stick yanks the string, a hand holds the stick, another string pulls the hand, another stick yanks the string, etc. 

Here is a PDF of the graphic below.

In both QA and YD we see events from the point of view of journalists who are part of the economic and military system of the West. In QA the point of view is first person, so we see things closely from Fowler’s point of view -- which appears to be very similar to Greene's point of view. In YD Cookie is writing the account, although much of what he writes is what happens to Hamilton and is what he imagines Hamilton to be thinking and feeling. The relation between Cookie and Koch is neither as close nor as clear as the relation between Fowler and Greene.

Narrative Line

Here is a PDF of the narrative line below.

There's one puppetmaster controlling every character and speaking all the parts. Tags by Rebecca Marshall: Bali, Ubud, Wayang, Hanuman, Wayan, Wajang. Ramayana play, Hindu arts in Bali Indonesia, Hinduism. Date16 April 2005, 01:23. Source: wayang_ku…

There's one puppetmaster controlling every character and speaking all the parts. Tags by Rebecca Marshall: Bali, Ubud, Wayang, Hanuman, Wayan, Wajang. Ramayana play, Hindu arts in Bali Indonesia, Hinduism. Date16 April 2005, 01:23. Source: wayang_kulit_8. Author: Rebecca Marshall from San Francisco, USA (Wikimedia Commons)