The Heart Fails Without Warning by Hillary Mantel - Essay Example

Text Analysis Introduction In any piece of literary work, understanding the source text is vitally important.This is characterized by a comprehension of both the external and internal aspect that characterizes the respective piece of text. In essence, it makes the reader or audience to make the right deductions about the specific piece of work. In addition, it is important in enhancing understanding of the intentions of the reader and therefore preventing instances of misunderstanding that compromise the ability of the author to attain his primary goal of relaying the information to the audience. It is against this background that this paper provides a textual analysis of Hilary Mantels excerpt of The Heart Fails Without Warning. From the outlook, the author seeks to inform the reader about anorexia, an illness that one of the teenage girls suffer from and from the topic, which later has fatal implications on the wellbeing of the teenage girl. To ensure objectivity, the paper employs Nord’s text analysis model to underscore the text’s communicative function. In order to effectively explore this, it will examine both the extra textual as well as intra textual factors. The translation brief provides useful information about the author of the source text. In this respect, Hillary Mantel is an author of ‘The Hear fails Without Warning’, a story that is published in the Guardian Review Magazine of October, 2009. The aim of the author is to inform the audience about the environmental and social problems that this society is grappling with. Also worth mentioning is the need by the author to highlight the health implications that the demeaning conditions have on the wellbeing of the inhabitants. From an individual point of view, the sender of the information is the editor of the Guardian Review magazine. This is suggestive in the topic of the magazine as well as in the information contained in the source takes. It can be presumed that the editor of the Guardian Review Magazine simply wants the important message to reach the target audience- parents and guardians. Notably, they are the most directly in contact with teenage girls and hence, knowledge about the challenges that teenagers face would probably be helpful. The relative information is directed at a diverse client base. To begin with, Mantel seeks to inform the local inhabitants about the deteriorating social conditions and what they can do to protect the vulnerable children from the resultant negative implications. Another group that the author wishes to reach to pertains to the relevant policy and decision makers as well as law enforcement agencies. These are wide and varied including the government, the police and stakeholders in the health ministry. His main intention is to inform the abovementioned individuals about the situation on the ground. This is implied in the source text and specifically in the Journal type that the article is published in. In most cases, it can be agreed that the preceding audiences are the ones who mostly read the magazine. Undoubtedly, knowledge about this would enable them to take necessary action towards protecting the welfare of the affected individuals. Since it is published in The Guardian Review magazine, the author specifically wishes to reach out to all adults who are charged with the responsibility of taking care of the young children. Relative information would enable them understand the challenges that especially face the youth. The text was published in 2009 for the purpose of informing the audience about the challenges that this segment of the populations was grappling with at that particular period of time. However, the facts presented herein had lasting implications on both the intended target as well as the general audience. This is particularly so because the author addresses social and environmental concerns whose implications are pervasive. This is apparent when the author cites that the family shares a small house and a bedroom and school girls are raped in toilets. Text Type: Form and Genre The text type is basically situation monitoring. In this case, the author reviews the experiences of the characters and explains the problems that they encounter in the course of their lives. The main aim for this is to inform the intended audience about the identified problems as well as their implications over time. From an individual point of view, the text is tone setting. This is exemplified through the types of sentences that the author employs. Typical examples from the source text include “Its everywhere”; The apple must be poison green. The leaf must be bitter”. Register With respect to the subject matter or field, Hillary mantel understands and appreciates the aspects of social and environmental conflicts. He also has a clear understanding of the implications of these conflicts or controversies to the life of the youth. Thus from the point of view of Nord, he seemingly has the ability to ‘identify the subject matter and has requisite skills to deal with it’ (Nord, 1991, p. 93). This can be used to explain why he is able to address the subject matter with ease. From the source text, he is able to explore the issues pertaining to teenage bullying in school and relate these to the implications that they have on the psychological wellbeing of the affected children. In addition, he explains how cultural values related to nutrition influence the eating habits of the teenagers and how all these contribute to nutritional disorders. This approach indicates that the author understands the complexity of the problem and indeed is conversant with its different facets. With regard to the literary ‘tone’, the characters of the family share a familial relationship. In particular, Morna and Lola are sisters and live with their father and mother. With regard to mode, the information that the author wishes to pass on is presented through writing. The text is published in the Guardian magazine through which the audience can access. Coherence Also worth mentioning is the aspect of coherence that has been accorded equal attention by the translator. To a great extent, this has accredited the quality of the piece of text. As aforementioned, various ideas have been explored in this literary text. The main aim of the author was probably to underscore how these attributes interplay to contribute to the wider problem. The manner in which the factors have been presented to the author is organized. The ‘text combination’ is ideal and relevant to the subject matter. To begin with, the author provides informative hints about the subject matter in the topic of the text. From this, the reader understands the scope of the text as encompassing the nutritional problems, the state of anorexia, and the implication of this health status to human health and specifically to the cardiovascular system and how teenagers are affected by the status. The translator also utilizes certain technical terms that contribute significantly to clarifying the subject matter. Terms such as ‘internet bullying’ undoubtedly imply that the social problems that the protagonist is facing are indeed far reaching. From a social point of view, it cannot be disputed that internet bullying is an emergent problem that has had far reaching implications on the holistic wellbeing of the children. Another technical term that clearly defines the subject matter presents herein pertains to ‘piercings’. Equally important to the aspect of coherence is the text composition. This excerpt does not ‘stand alone’ rather it is related to a more comprehensive and larger text body. It is just the beginning of the text and does not detail everything that the author wishes to say. From the topic or heading of the text, it is supposed to detail the adverse implications that the social problems have on the welfare of the teenagers. Most probably, it ends by underscoring the heart complications that one of the teenagers experiences. Nonetheless, the information provided in the source text is coherent because it is drawn from the beginning of the translation. Although the story is incomplete, the translator provides the audience with sufficient factual information that they can use to understand the information being relayed. Coupled with the information presented in the topic or heading of the text, this is instrumental in enabling the audience to understand and appreciate the themes presented herein. Apart from utilizing vocabulary that underscores the problem and develops the themes that the author wishes to pass on, the author also uses figurative language such as similes and metaphors that helps in ‘linking together register analyses’. Notably, the figurative language that is used greatly contributes to the development of the information and generally helps the translator to pass on the intended information with ease. Most importantly, the respective figures of speech play an important role in informing the intended audience about the cultural background of the respective community. An example of a figurative language that informs of the culture of the population includes ‘Their ribs were spaced wide apart like the bars of oven shelves’. This shows that the type of staple food of the population is probably made from wheat. Alternatively, these help in explaining the cultural background of the translator. Specific aspects pertaining to language, dress and general way of life are usually depicted through figurative language. At this point in time, it would be important to differentiate between the translator and the author. These are two different individuals whose contribution to the source text is vitally important. While the translation is supposed to solely reflect the views of the author, it is widely agreed that in some instances, the translator incorporates his or her own views in the text. This occurs because of language deficiencies that make it difficult for the translator to purely understand all the aspects of the author’s language. This mostly happens in instances where the author’s language is the translator’s second language. The source text is structured in paragraphs that aid in the development of the story. This is typical of short stories and through them; the author is able to organize ideas systematically. This goes a long way in enhancing coherence and ensuring that information provided contributes positively to the main theme. In this regard, it is worth appreciating that development of the central theme is of paramount importance because through this, relevant information is relayed to the audience effectively. The translator also utilizes varied types of sentences in a bid to pass on important information to the audience. The long sentences are typical of prose texts and go a long way in developing the plot of the text. In addition, the sentences are vital because they aid in meeting the goals and objectives of the author with respect to narration. Narratives are characterized by long sentences because they basically recount the vents of a particular incident. The translator also utilizes short sentences especially when documenting conversations between the characters. Through this, he is able to present the language capabilities of the characters that are drawn from the community. Notably, this provides a comprehensive review of the background of the characters. Through this for instance, the author is able to understand the social, economic and cultural backgrounds of the characters. Notably, the educational levels of the characters are also well defined in this text. This information is undoubtedly important in understanding the views that are put forth by the author. Presupposition is also employed by the translator to attain distinctive goals and objectives. From the point of view of Nord, presuppositions are usually assumed by the author implicitly (Nord, 1991, p. 96). The author in this case does believe that the receiver would also assume that the sender would implicitly send the required information. This has detrimental implications on the communication process because it presents gaps and disrupts the entire procedure. In this review, the author and the translator presumes that the reader or audience would understand the entire story. For this reason, they do not provide the details of important aspects pertaining to the cardiovascular problems that the teenager faces later in the text. The author and translator only imply that the teenager suffers from nutritional problems and later dies in the heading that they accord the text. The receiver or audience of this information on the other hand presumes that the author and translator would probably provide information in the following publication. Arguably, the author and translator do believe that the receiver of the information would understand the message without being provided with the required information. At this point, it cannot be disputed that aspects of coherence, cohesion and form or the genre have been accorded adequate attention by the author. Nonetheless, there are a host of knowledge gaps that make it difficult for the reader to appreciate the entire text. To begin with, the culture of the community within which the text is set is not explicitly presented in the text. This is regardless of the author having the instruments through which he would pursue this. In this regard, the author would employ conversations as well as figurative language to present this important information to the audience. Another avenue that the author would utilize in exploring critical cultural aspects of the community pertains to the plot of the text. In this respect, the author would have provided such information as a narration through the text. This would have particularly been vital in enabling the author to provide the information to the audience with utmost precision and accuracy. Conclusion In sum, the source text is very rich and provides useful insights regarding the cultural and environmental problems that the community grapples with. This theme is implied through the heading of the text as well as through the plot. Using paragraphs, he succeeds in developing the plot in an organized and cohesive manner. The ideas presented are relevant and greatly contribute to both plot and theme development. In addition, the translator employs both complex and short sentences in presenting critical information to the author. As aforementioned, through these avenues, the author succeeds in underscoring the education and cultural aspects of the community within which the text is set. However, cultural aspects are not explicitly explored regardless of the fact that the author had sufficient avenues through which he would explore this. Reference Nord. C 1991, Text Analysis in Translation: Theory, Methodology, and Didactic Application of a Model for Translation-Oriented Text Analysis. Amsterdam: Editions Read More