This document discusses techniques used in the book MR PIP including symbolism, narrative voice, and parallelism. It provides examples of each from the text: 1) Many story elements symbolize larger ideas, such as the shining cuckoo representing colonialism. 2) The narrative voice is complicated by the adult author writing as the child protagonist Matilda. 3) Events in MR PIP parallel those in Great Expectations, the book being read, such as Dolores resembling Miss Havisham and Mr Watts resembling Pip.

1. MR PIP: TECHNIQUES, HOW THEY ARE USED AND THEIR EFFECTS.
There are several different techniques used in various parts of the book. However, there are three main
techniques used that you can incorporate fairly easily into any essay on this book.
1. SYMBOLISM: Many aspects of the story are symbols, representations and foreshadowing of
events.
• The “shining cuckoo” (p.41), which Dolores uses to describe Mr Watts, is a bird that
lays its eggs in another bird's nest, having first destroyed the eggs already there. “The
chick of the shining cuckoo never meets its mother.” Dolores uses the symbol of the
shining cuckoo to try and convince Matilda that her family tree should be respected
more than Mr Watts – he has no history and therefore no validity or importance. He has
not received the wisdom of his ancestors and therefore anything he has to say is suspect.
However, he also represents for Dolores the white colonialists who are the root cause of
all Bougainville's problems. “White men had stolen her husband and my father. White
men were to blame for the mine, and the blockade”. Matilda sees a “kind man”; Dolores
sees a symbol.
• The spare room is a symbol of everything the Watts thought was important and also
represented the differences between them, including their cultures. Grace wrote about
her family and would often trail off, leaving her sentences incomplete. This was Grace's
free spirit (“What would you rather do? Sit with your feet dangling off the end of a
wharf?” - p. 158) and annoyed Mr Watts. The interesting thing about how Matilda
remembers the lists on the wall of the room is that it is clear that she remembers mostly
Grace's lists/words. The Watts had intended their daughter to read the lists and “choose”
her world. However, resentment simmered beneath the surface when they realised there
were “ideas and positions of their own they wanted their daughter to inherit, and some
which were opposed to one another” (p. 162). The room symbolises both their
differences and their efforts to find common ground.
• Colour (black, white, blue). Jones uses these as symbols in several ways. White not only
symbolises colonialisation and all the difficulties faced by the Islanders as a result, but
as Matilda says, “We had grown up believing white to be the colour of all the important
things like ice-cream, aspirin...” (p.4). Later, Mr Watts discusses black and white with
the rambos when he tells the story of the spare room. “White is next to cleanliness.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness” he says (p. 156). But “above all, white is a feeling”.
When Mr Watts says this, the entire group of listeners is silent, waiting for a further
revelation from Mr Watts. His cryptic remark that “We feel white around black people”
has less to do with colour than it does culture, understanding, tradition and life
experience. Blue is a recurring symbol of the sea and sky, representing the
Bougainvillean world (“I miss the colour blue” - Grace, p. 160), as well as a symbol of
life itself to the Bougainvilleans (see p. 51). The lesson by Daniel's grandmother on the
colour blue has a profound effect on Mr Watts and he shows respect for her imagination:
“While we may not know the whole world, we can, if we are clever enough, make it
new” (p. 52). This is, of course, what Mr Watts is trying to achieve by reading Great
Expectations to the children.
• The devil: Mr Watts and Dolores clash over ideas of God and the devil; good and evil.
Mr Watts doesn't believe in either as an entity but he believes in the power of good and
evil – he sees it around him all the time, which is why he tries to take the children away
from some of the evil in the world by reading his modified, sanitised version of Great

2. Expectations. He tries to convey this to Matilda's mother in the story of the May Fly
(p.165) but this could also be an admission that, after listening to all the lessons taught
by the adults in the village, he has learned something himself and come to respect their
beliefs, even if he can't adhere to them.
2. NARRATIVE VOICE: The first person narration of this story is further made
complicated that the author is a middle-aged man, writing as a postgraduate adult
woman, about the experiences of a 13-year-old girl. We see only what Matilda sees and
know only what she is thinking. She also often uses the voice of experience to explain
and interpret the things she heard, thought about or experienced at the time, which
means that we have a duality about our understanding of events. When she recites the
stories of the island women, she is authentically 13-year-old Matilda, which is reinforced
by the use of the plural 1st
person (“we”). For example, “We all felt uncomfortable
because Mr Watts had been made to feel uncomfortable” (p. 53). This voice is authentic
because it has the selfishness of youth – the collective “we” when we have no guarantee
of what anyone else is feeling and there is no mention of the kids discussing their
feelings. It also serves to reinforce the difference between the island children and Mr
Watts (“we”/”he”). However, we see the adult Matilda poking her head up several times
on Bougainville – for example, when the Redskins are asking the villagers to produce
“this man, Pip” and Matilda realises that the book cannot be produced, her observations
are very adult. “Under these circumstances, silence among such a large group of people
is an uncomfortable thing to experience. Guilt is malignant” (p. 103). This is followed
almost immediately by a 13-year-old's words: “It had not occurred to me before to think
of the ocean as a dumb useless thing.” What are we to make of this? How does it help
you to interpret the novel? What does it make you think about the author's intention?
3. PARALLELISM: There are many instances of the text of Great Expectations being
paralleled in Matilda's story. Dolores is likened to Miss Havisham by Matilda (p. 49).
Miss Havisham was left at the altar by her fiancé and now spends her days among the
rotting finery of her aborted wedding. Similarly, Dolores has not been able to forgive her
husband for abandoning her and has been unable to move on. As with both characters,
the actions of men they were supposed to be able to trust affects the rest of their lives
and the lives of those around them. Mr Watts takes on the persona of Pip, the protagonist
of Great Expectations. Although he does this to save the villagers from the rambos, it
ultimately leads to his downfall by the redskins. He likens himself to the orphan Pip
when he says that “he is like an emigrant. He is in the process of migrating from one
level of society to another” (p. 61). This is a reflection of Mr Watts's status as an outsider
and as we learn more about Mr Watts, we can equate him increasingly with Pip as a
stranger in a strange world. However, we can also see parallels between Matilda and Pip
– they both go through huge changes, are the narrators of their respective stories and
have had hard starts in life. Also, the lack of resources and facilities in Bougainville is
very like the hard times faced by many lower class citizens in Dickens' England –
children died in infancy and adults died young, just as happens in Matilda's village
(“...two more children died of malaria...” - p.43).
Apart from these, there are several examples of general techniques used. Otherwise, you
would be advised to look at specific passages you want to write about and judge whether
techniques/literary devices help you to analyse your ideas about them. Some examples
are:

3. 1. Idiolect: This is a type of dialect (language specific to an area) that is unique to the
people speaking it and helps us recognise them by its features. It includes things such as
accent – e.g., “Ged up, Matilda!” - Dolores, p. 12. Specific words are also common –
e.g., “blimmin'” (p. 22) – a corruption of the British “blooming”. Syntax shows that
although English is spoken by the people, it is a pidgin form, such as when Mrs Masoi
says “Fat ones. Fat ones is good. Skinny no bloody good” (p.33). This highlights the
differences between both Mr Watts and the villagers (e.g., “Jolly good” - Mr Watts, p.
33) and Matilda and her own people, as when she speaks it is with grammatically correct
English.It also allows us to hear the villagers speaking directly – as if Jones wanted to
give them a voice (something they did not have during the civil war).
2. Figurative language: both Mr Watts and the islander use a wide variety of figurative
speech, indicating a literary background in Mr Watts' case and an oral tradition in the
islanders' case. Mr Watts uses sophisticated language structures often to great effect (“a
change of name is as good as a change of clothes” – p. 61; “Once again, Dolores, you
have provided us with food for thought” - p. 68”; “”...how might we recognise this
creature? Does he have horns? Does he produce a business card? Does he have a lipless
mouth? And no eyebrows? Do his eyes have a wanton quality?” - p. 164). This last
quote, as Matilda says, helps Mr Watts to “create a devil before our eyes”. His power
over language is what makes him both different and compelling. The islanders use great
imagery in their language, as they have a tradition of using what they know/can
touch/understand to explain the things they don't – e.g., “At night the blimmin' dogs and
roosters chase after dreams and break them in two” - Gilbert's uncle, p. 52. This
excellent example of personification expresses beautifully how the barking of dogs and
crowing of roosters wakes you up with a start and also how people use whatever
understanding they have (be it religion or nature) to attach meaning to events.
3. Foreshadowing: this device is used when the animals are killed early in the book. “An
old dog had its belly ripped open” - p. 34. The brutal words, reported in such a calm
manner, foreshadow the events to come and we can see that they will be reported in the
same matter-of-fact way that makes them all the more horrifying. The fact that this
passage seems to come out of nowhere, with little variance from what has gone before,
emphasises the hardship of life in the village at the time, where nothing can be taken for
granted and things can change in an instant.