Framing the Words

Framed Narrative

How often have you started telling a story, failed, and had to excuse yourself with, “You had to be there”? How often have you heard this? If not a story, how about a picture that “doesn’t do it justice”? People often fail to express themselves in words or images, especially when traveling. Travel is seen as an experience, which, by definition, is experienced. The recollection of an experience can only go so far in imparting the benefits (or detriments) of actually living it. But if a picture or photograph is worth a thousand words and these works of art are often framed, why not apply the frame to the thousand or more words that make up the worth of the image?

Joseph Conrad uses the frame tale method to tell the true narrative of his novella Heart of Darkness. Conrad lets the tale unfold from Marlow to the narrator and this allows the narrator’s views and opinions to change with the telling of the tale, just as the reader’s does. Through this framing format the reader is allowed to experience the telling of the tale firsthand in a secondhand manner because it is through the evolving view of the narrator. And like the person who is unable to articulate an event or a photo that doesn’t capture a subject’s grandeur and presence, Marlow’s description sometimes fails to put the experience into words.

And much of that experience has to do with the “horror” of expansionist policies. As Marlow says, "The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a

different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much" (p. 7). Anyone who viewed the “Cannibal Tours” video can certainly agree that this theme has, sadly, persevered. With such an ugly thing to witness, is it so surprising that he feels an inadequacy in relating the experience to another, and in turn, to the reader?