Journey By Night Notes

This passage recounts the unnamed protagonist’s experience of taking a taxi at night and as the story progresses and tension steadily rises, conveys the protagonist’s unease and growing fear of the taxi driver. Ultimately, for the reader, this ends with the realization that the paranoia is mutual and shared by the driver himself. Although the story is told from the point of view of an omniscient third person narrator, for the majority of the passage, the narrator confines himself to recounting only the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings. Through the two main characters’ misconceptions of each other, the author emphasizes the themes of stereotypes, uncertainty and isolation in the cold, hostile postmodern world.
The author uses several methods of conveying his themes, but the chief way in which the passage conveys its themes and attracts its readers’ attention is through creating an atmosphere of steadily rising tension.

The passage opens with a description of a street in an unfriendly suburban neighbourhood at night. The vividness with which the street is described and the sinister imagery evoked—“a dark cloud passes across the sky, hiding the few pale stars that had been there”, “the noise of a falling dust-bin reached his ear”—all serve to cast a very ominous light on the rest of the story, as if foreshadowing some untoward occurrence. Significantly, these images are all commonplace suburban occurrences, but given added meaning by their juxtaposition and added symbolism by their occurrence at night. The dark cloud that blots out the stars seems to be a dark cloud extinguishing hope, the dog foraging and the falling dustbin seem to symbolize decay and the decline of society. The first two sentences of the passage thus very clearly build up the tension, seemingly foreshadowing ominous happenings later on in the passage.

Moving away from a description of the setting, the narrator starts to describe the protagonist’s thoughts. Here, the tension is evident: the sentences get shorter and terser, and every thought that passes through the protagonist’s head is described in full detail. The clarity with which the protagonist’s thoughts are conveyed serves to bring the reader closer to the story and to identify more completely with the protagonist. Indeed, the tension is clear in the protagonist’s thoughts—“instinctively his hand felt for his wallet. Yes, it was still there. If only he had a stick!”—and most of it stems from uncertainty as to what is going to happen in a nasty neighbourhood such as this at night. As we do not know much about the setting other than the brief description earlier on and the protagonist’s agitated thoughts, the atmosphere thus created is a very much tense one.

In the ensuing paragraphs, much the same techniques are used to create tension. In the second paragraph, there is a slight change in mood, and it looks like the arrival of the taxi may change the mood. The sentences grow longer, descriptions briefer. However, by the next paragraph the tension very quickly regenerates, this time caused by the silence and relative loneliness of the protagonist. The nameless fear of the first paragraph is given form by the fourth paragraph, and tension rises once again, the author fearing an attack from the driver. Exclamation marks and terse sentences abound, conveying the protagonist’s agitation. This tension ultimately rises to a climax point when the protagonist yells “Stop!” and “put me down here”—two of the three lines of dialogue in the passage. The shortness and urgency of these two lines commands the reader’s attention and the tension is highest here. Quickly after that, the tension subsides as the rest of the journey is covered in brief and protagonist alights from the taxi outside his home. The tension completely disappears with the last paragraph, with its longer sentences, and resolution of the conflict within the protagonist—that the driver was not really a possible assailant but simply another human as scared of the protagonist as the protagonist is of the driver. The “sigh of relief” the driver heaves is also the reader’s as the conflict is resolved. Although the tension before the climax stems from a variety of causes, from the fear of being alone to the fear of being attacked, the techniques used to build this tension are very similar to in the first paragraph—short, terse sentences describing the protagonist’s thoughts and the long, vivid descriptions of the protagonist’s actions as well as the scenery around him.

The tension in this passage underscores several important themes in the passage. In the first three paragraphs, it emphasizes the protagonist’s isolation, for although the protagonist fears being attacked at night, no such assailant materializes, only the taxi driver. The protagonist’s loneliness makes him feel tense and lends to his paranoia—it is precisely because he is alone that he imagines all sorts of peril and is far more afraid than if he were with a group or at least one other person. In the cab, the tension builds as although the protagonist is no longer alone, he still feels isolated by the lack of communication between himself and the driver. Paradoxically, his isolation feels more enforced by the presence of the driver, and tension builds tangibly, more so than previously when he was standing alone by the roadside. Perhaps it is because of the initial assumption that he would have someone to talk to and its subsequent disproof that adds to the tension. The tension in the first three paragraphs stems from the protagonist’s isolation and thus enforces this theme.

In the fourth to sixth paragraphs, the tension arises from the protagonist’s stereotyping of the driver in the absence of any other information about him. This conveys the themes of uncertainty and stereotyping. It is only because of the uncertainty that the protagonist’s imagination runs wild, and his growing paranoia and stereotyping of taxi drivers as all attacking customers at night lead to the rising tension in these paragraphs.

Although the most obvious feature of the text is its tense atmosphere, the author also uses other techniques to convey and universalize his themes. Most pertinent is the plot and its inherent irony.

The plot in this passage follows the standard format of rising action, climax and resolution, but the ending comes as a surprise. The plot is relatively simple, based around the protagonist’s inner conflict upon being alone in a strange neighbourhood at night. The entire passage is based upon the protagonist’s view and fear of the driver, skewed by his complete lack of information on the driver. The resolution turns the tables on the reader and protagonist by portraying the events from the driver’s point of view—ironically, while the protagonist was afraid of him, the driver was afraid of the protagonist and had had identical fears as the protagonist had of him. The plot is thus resolved very quickly and very easily, which all the more serves to drive home the irony of the resolution. By the time we reach the resolution we expect the driver to be a crazed axe-murderer, he turns out to be a very normal and sane individual, entertaining the same thoughts as the protagonist. Ultimately, this enforces the dangers of stereotyping and lack of communication, it also serves as an indictment against the uncertainty in postmodern society.

Another feature of the text is its element of anonymity and universality. The protagonist and driver remain unnamed throughout the passage, and while emphasizing the theme of uncertainty, this also makes the passage and its message a universally applicable one—we all, like the protagonist, have at some point stereotyped other people or been irrationally afraid of strangers and strange situations. Although we may not react so violently as the protagonist, we have all offended other people at one point or another by our antisocial or paranoid behaviour. Another example is the commonness of the suburban landscape described in the first paragraph. The description is a very common one, with everyday occurrences found in almost every suburban neighbourhood at night. Each of the images is assigned negative and sinister undercurrents only by the reader and the protagonist. Once again, this emphasizes how commonplace situations like this occur, and also how everyday things can be transformed in the uncertainty (symbolized by the darkness of the night) and paranoia (the vivid imagination of the protagonist) of the postmodern world. All these instances of anonymity serve to universalize the themes and message of the passage, as well as to enforce the themes of uncertainty and stereotyping.

In summary, the writer manages very effectively to convey the tense and paranoid atmosphere of the passage and the inner turmoil of paranoia that the protagonist experiences. This tension, together with the heavy irony that suffuses the whole passage and the element of anonymity and universality that covers everything in the passage serves to highlight the themes of isolation, uncertainty and stereotyping that prevail throughout the passage. Ultimately, the passage serves as a caricature and indictment of everything wrong with postmodern society—the paranoia, uncertainty, stereotyping and abject isolation in the generation that has lost the skills of interaction. CA3 Assignment 3 –
Unseen Prose) the story is told with a third point of view, with an omniscient narrator. This is effective to a large extent because of the way the writer utilizes the point of view to add to the environment and atmosphere in the text. The narrative style serves to build an air of detachment. While it allows us to feel the same feelings of anxiety and fear as the reader, the lack of the usage of the word "I" also reminds us that the author is alone.
“The semidarkness of the car... (Where) there were no other passengers" builds up the idea of a dark, ominous surrounding. While the choice of diction already builds a sense of vulnerability, the detached third person point of view allows the reader to see the character as truly alone. The narrative style is thus effective in enhancing the tension and suspense that is already present in the text. The narrative style is also effective in building up conflict. As the protagonist struggles with himself, alternating between negative perspectives of his situation and "(not allowing) himself to think of (those negative outlooks)", the third person point of view allows us to create even more distance from his thoughts. While it still exposes us to the internal conflict the character is feeling, it allows us to focus on the actions around the character, such as the repetition of "his hand (going to) his wallet", and the attempting to "seethe other man's face clearly". These actions show us the protagonist's fear, anxiety, and vulnerability. Thus, with the additional focus on the actions of the protagonist, we are allowed a greater insight into his feelings and reasons for internal conflict. Therefore, the narrative style is also effective in building up the conflict within the protagonist in the text. Also, the narrative style is effective in the resolution of the text. While the omniscient narrator is present throughout the text, it is newly utilised in bringing the entire story closure. In the last paragraph, readers are given an insight into the thoughts of the taxi driver, rather than just the protagonist alone. The final alternative viewpoint not only puts all fears at rest by showing the protagonist's vivid paranoia is nothing more than paranoia, but also introduces situational irony. This irony is present in how the taxi driver and protagonist were both afraid of each other for the same reason, and both were trying to protect themselves from each other. This situational irony creates humour in the text, ending the suspenseful story on a lighter and relief-filled note. Resolution and closure are thus created using the narrative style of the passage. The third person omniscient narrative style used is effective in enhancing tension and suspense, building up conflict and creating a sound resolution. Thus, it plays a very important role in the writer's technique as it features in all parts of the play and greatly contributes to reader enjoyment.