Fatelessness chapter 1 questions

1.  What characters are introduced in this chapter?

 Gyuri, Mr. Sütó, the baker,  Gyuri's father and stepmother, his grandparents, uncle Willy, Uncle Lajos, Uncle Steiner, and Uncle Fleischmann.

2. Choose two characters and select a quote to describe them physically or psychologically.

The following quote describes uncle Willie perfectly: "His head is pear shaped, broad, bulging, and bald on top, but narrowing at the cheeks and toward the chin".

 And this other quote describes Gyuri's stepmother's mama: "She has a narrow, sallow face, enormous dark eyes, and two withered flaps of skin dangling from her neck, which gives her the appearence of a very alert, discerning hunting dog"

3. What is the narrative technique? Provide evidence

• Point of view: the narrator is Gyuri, a 15 year old teenager, who is the protagonist of this novel. This meaning that it is a first person narration. An example of this is: "U didn't head home but to our shop. Father had said they would wait for me there". Having this point of view has both its benefits and disadvantages. As the good side of this narration we could say that it gives us the point of view of the main character, who's the one that we mostly care about. As a disadvantage, we could say that it only gives us a limited view of the events compared to an omniscient narrator that will know everything about everyone. Another advantage is that we get to feel like part of the story, and it is even more valuable when it is being told to us by the protagonist.
• Narrative: Indirect, he is telling the story for the sake of it. He isn't aware that he is telling the story to an audience, in this case us. He is just retelling it. ("We were already on the upper floor when it occurred to my stepmother that she had forgotten to redeem the bread coupon. I had to go back to the baker's.") As it can be seen, the narrator is telling us the story without directly telling it to us but to an absent audience.
• Speech: Reported speech, since the narrator summarizes the events, and retells them to us. "We were already on the upper floor when it occurred to my stepmother that she had forgotten to redeem the bread coupon. I had to go back to the baker's."
• Tense: Past tense "I didn't go to school today". He is retelling us the events that already happened.

4. Describe the setting of this chapter

This chapter takes place in Budapest, Hungary. It's in the WWII context, and all of the characters in the chapter are living it's consequences. Both by their status in the society as Jews, and/or by the different air raids, etc.