Narrative
I have mentioned previously in my posts how the children of Grace and Frankie play an important role in the series. Today’s post will focus on one of Grace’s daughters, Brianna, and her relationship with her boyfriend/employee, Barry.
I have chosen Narrative for this criticism post. From our class notes, narrative includes several story elements: plot, characters, conflict, setting, tone, and theme. The purpose of Narrative is fidelity – is it true to life? Does it have coherence? Author Mikhail Bakhtin, uses the term heteroglossia, to help describe, from what I understand is, the direct narrative of the author, instead of the dialogue between the characters. I will be identifying all these elements that make the narrative, as I explain what is happening in two of the episodes between Brianna and Barry.
As previously mentioned, Brianna and Barry are the characters for this narrative. The setting is in Brianna and Barry’s place of work, Say Grace. The plot is about Brianna and Barry’s relationship and whether they are moving in the right direction, together or further apart. In season 6, episode 11, “The Laughing Stock,” Brianna is offered a promotion in San Francisco. The conflict is before discussing it with Barry, (who recently moved in with her), she decides herself that she would take the job and assumes Barry would just go along with it. The way she brings it up to him, is by talking about having more closet space and a chance to buy a place of their own together. Barry is excited and then hears it’s only because she took a job in San Francisco and that is the only reason why she is considering moving to a new place (with him).
Barry, “I can’t believe you did this.”
Brianna, “I know. Look at me, I’m really thinking about our future.”
Barry, “You mean your future.”
In season 6, episode 13, “The Change,” begins with Barry returning from a mini solo vacation and he doesn’t know that Brianna ended up turning down the job promotion. He spent time thinking about their relationship and believes Brianna doesn’t see or want a more permanent commitment with him. This is an example of narrative fidelity, because I believe we can all relate to relationship issues where we don’t see eye-to-eye and might be in different places in the relationship, then our partners. Barry decides to break-up with Brianna. After Brianna takes some time herself thinking about their relationship, she ends up getting on one knee and proposes to Barry. She proposes to get engaged and to stay engaged, forever. Brianna later explains to her Mom and Frankie that, “I had to come up with something, I know it’s unconventional, but it works for us.” The tone for this narrative stays positive and hopeful overall, because the theme of the narrative is clear that relationships have their own problems, and are unique and different. It’s what’s finding what works best between those involved in the relationship. This theme shows narrative coherence, because this is relatable to everyone who’s been in a relationship. Relationships are never perfect and never the same.
In conclusion, this narrative about Brianna and Barry is significant to the audience because it’s relatable, and we can easily see all the elements present in the narrative and why it works. Bakhtin’s term, heteroglossia, is present and can be understood in this narrative, because the author of these episodes wanted to show the audience that just because something is unconventional to how we usually see/do things, doesn’t make it wrong. Trying to find what works best for you, or in this case Brianna and Barry’s commitment to each other, is what’s important in life…
And they lived happily ever after! Their way!
Loni’s 142 Blog 
Found a typo in the fourth paragraph! Where it says, “relationship, then our partners” …”then.” Feel like there was a lot of story articulation in this blog post. One suggestion I could make would be to organize the sections for readers to be able to follow the plot, characters, conflict, setting, tone, and theme, e.g. make a table –> “Plot: (one line summary) Character: (one line summary), etc. Otherwise, good analysis Loni!
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Just a follow up, forgot to finish a sentence* “then” can be changed to “than” since you’re making a comparative statement 🙂
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This is a great episode, and a good choice for narrative analysis. I think you’ve explained it clearly enough for everyone to grasp what happens, and you have segmented it into the parts of the narrative clearly. Great pics, too!
However, you’re a bit muddled with the method here. If you choose this one to revise for the final post, I suggest that, first, you remove the material about heteroglossia. That means “many tongued,” and it’s a technique that involves telling a story from multiple perspectives. That’s not what’s going on here, and you don’t need it in there. The first part you have, about fidelity, is spot on; this story works because it feels true to life. Later, you mix up fidelity with coherence, though. Coherence means that, internal to the world of this story, the characters’ actions make sense — which DOES work here, since we believe Brianna would choose a non-normative relationship like this (it would perhaps stretch our coherence if she suddenly decided to embrace married monogamy, for example). So, I think if you clarify that this is about coherence, instead of fidelity, that you would be in good shape on this one. Finally, I’d recommend adding a little bit to set up narrative (using Fisher, when you go back to the reading reports).
This one has potential, with a little pivot. Keep up the great work! You’re almost done! 🙂
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I thought your blog post on Narrative criticism was very good. In your introductory paragraph, I wouldn’t worry about telling your audience about what you’re going to write about, focus more of your attention on the main components of the analysis. I would also avoid referring back to previous blog posts, this will only cause confusion to your audience. I would recommend that you focus your attention to the plot, and setting, you don’t elaborate enough with these concepts. You want your audience to know that exact detail of the space where they are having this conversation, give your audience the chance to create a mental picture as to what is happening. Overall I thought your blog post was well done.
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