Shame is written in the first-person point of view, which is a natural form for the memoir. The narrator is an adult, looking back to her childhood and attempting to understand through a re-creation of the summer of 1952 who she was and what she was feeling. Although Ernaux uses a first-person narrator, she insists that she is retelling the events with the cold objectivity of a reporter. She accomplishes this by offering no analysis of her feelings or the events that stirred them. Rather, she describes things, makes lists of things, and breaks down things into their most elementary parts. It is as if she is writing what she sees, not what she feels.
Shame is written as if Ernaux were keeping a journal. It is a form.....
This is a free excerpt of 135 words. This section contains 657 words. This
study guide contains 12,543 words (approx. 42 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Literature Guide with our Shame Access Pass.
