Reading Novels Like A Professor: Chapter 8 – Wrinkles in Time or Chapters Just Migh...

Reading Novels Like A Professor: Chapter 8 – Wrinkles in Time or Chapters Just Migh...: "Explain how the chapters are structured in the novel. What do the chapter divisions reflect about how the novel is constructed? Are they tit..."

Chapters in a novel are very important to the story. The breaks between each chapter give the reader something to look forward to. Instead of just mindlessly reading with no clear end, chapters allow the reader to make goals or checkpoints for themselves. Thomas Foster states in his book that, “they tell us that something significant has happened, that a certain interval of time or unified activity or narrative unit has passed”(98), then later saying that, “Ideally, though, chapters exist to contain a meaningful block of story”(98). In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel, Crime and Punishment, the book itself is broken down into six main parts. Then those six parts are broken down even further into individual chapters that are within each part. The chapters are not titled though, and they do not leave really any margin space between each chapter. The beginning of each chapter remains on the same page as the chapter previous to it. The overall division of activity from chapter to chapter really emphasizes the importance of the overall story. The main plot is very intricate, very precise and to the point. The fact that each chapter is immediate placed after another is a reflection of this plot. The chapter separation is somewhat ironic as well. With a major theme of the story being alienation and the fact that the main character purposefully isolates himself from the rest of society, it is rather humorous to see that there are really no breaks between the end of one chapter and the start of another. The chapters are not loose and all over the place, but are tight and strung together at a rather fast pace. The overall style of chapter division reflects attributes of the main story as well as the main character. Chapter placement is crucial to the story and to the overall success of a novel.

-Conner Furr