Posted by Rebecca Jeans on June 06, 1999 at 20:54:11:
Rebecca Jeans
English 201
Writing Prompt #18
In "Little Sawtooth" Michelle's story is told as a story within a story. It is given to the reader as an interpretation, a memory. The narrator is a fiction writer who is remembering the story that Michelle told him as an inspiration for his writing. Michelle's story has to be told this way because she is too shy to have been telling it herself. In addition, the narrator recalls that Michelle said she would never tell the story again because of the way that it hurt her. The narrator is necessary to getting Michelle's story to a wide audience. The story comes out very descriptively through the narrator as he adds deep details that Michelle probably left out. This way of recounting the story as the memory one person has of what someone else told him is the best way for it to be told.