Introduction
Nonfiction writing creates a world of fantasies and perceptions that become nearly real in terms of understanding. Hence, language is a powerful tool that shapes these perceptions to convey the nature of the intended realities. Powell’s work, The Ordinary, presents a compelling nonfiction story about the protagonist’s mother and the great suffering they both endured. The essay explores the language used in the story and analyzes the terms from Burroway’s chapter on the components of nonfiction stories. The literary nonfiction will also include an exclusive summary of the details of the occurrences that the protagonist presents.
Summary
Powell’s nonfiction story qualifies as a literary or creative work because it uses key terms introduced by the protagonist. The use of imagery, various forms of setting and scene, voice, and characterization represents some elements that Burroway considers literary nonfiction (Burroway 226). The protagonist provides a vivid description of the life she received, which was all her mother’s doing. She considers that she had only one mother, but in an image format, there were seven. Additionally, the protagonist states that she grew up thinking of herself as a woman, with her mother disliking her.
The protagonist places herself in several forms of illusion, trying to act out scenes with her mother of possible lives she could have lived with her in the various ways she considered her to be. “I have just one, but in that way of mothers, she is several, all attached at the mouth, competing with each other for speech.” (Powell 27). The illustration of several mothers attached to one mouth allows the protagonist to imagine different kinds of lives, such as being an actress and having her mother by her side.
The use of nonfiction in the story allows the protagonist to narrate her experiences in a dispassionate tone while offering a vision of her journey. There is also the use of personal reflections, such as when her mother hands her a cigarette and ends up setting it to a string of paper dolls as she grapples with her mother being the secondhand user of destruction tools (Powell 27). Hence, the story provides a vivid picture of the protagonist’s intentions regarding her mother’s nature and her mother’s experiences.
Analysis Through Burroway’s Terms
Imagery
Burroway’s techniques incorporate a significant framework for analyzing Powell’s work. One prominent technique depicted in the work involves the portrayal of voice and image as the protagonist reflects on several encounters with her mother. The story begins with the protagonist bringing the center of the discussion into focus: her mother. As it was stated, “For years, I thought of myself as a woman whose mother disliked her” (Powell 27). Hence, the image shows the protagonist suffering under her mother’s arms for several years.
However, the imagery is depicted when she underlines that, though she had only one mother, there were several of them, each with different sides to portray. The author said that “One mother is a professional. One is a variety show actress, a la Goldie Hawn. One is a desert” (Powell 27). She therefore creates the image of the several personalities the mother portrays, even though she is only one person.
Setting
The other technique Burroway explains concerns the concept of setting, which makes the essay a work of literary nonfiction. The protagonist narrates her story across several settings, as she is caught in a constant cycle of illusions, trying to remember the different sides of her mother. In one instance, she boards a train bound for New York. “On the train to New York, returning from a conference in Washington D.C, my mother rolls her mouth closed, an upside-down suspension bridge.” (Powell 29).
As she looks at her mother from across the room, she sees a scene from one of the many scenarios her mother has enacted. Powell thus provides a setting that elaborates on the sides her mother portrays. There is also Death Valley, where she lives right now, offering a change of scenery. The setting thus provides a clear illustration of the many years the protagonist suffered under her mother’s care.
Sensory Scene Building
Another technique in The Ordinary is the concept that brings out the immediacy of the detailed actions by creating a scene. The protagonist brings life to the story she narrates, having gone through it for several years when she started. In this case, the protagonist begins with a summary of the situation she wants to narrate, elaborating that, for many years, she believed her mother disliked her.
Immediately after that, she provides a vivid account of the actions that led her to feel this way and experience this emotion, explaining that her mother had several sides. She denotes that all the different forms of her mother were attached to one mouth that wanted to speak something to her (Powell 27). There is, hence, the sensual apprehension that follows the action through a clear description of her dying mother’s forms of treatment to her during her early days.
Conclusion
Alisson Powell’s work, The Ordinary, is a testament to the profound craft of literary or nonfictional writing. Through employing image, voice, scene, and setting, human existence transforms ordinary experiences, underscoring them with the virtual perceptions most people undergo. There is a dispassionate tone, which authenticates the narrative the protagonist provides.
Works Cited
Burroway, Janet. Imaginative writing. New York: Addison Wesley Longman Inc., 2003.
Powell, Alison. “The Ordinary.” Mississippi Review, vol. 50, no. 1/2, 2022, pp. 27–32.