Georgia Blain’s overall message in the text Candelo is that events from the past shouldn’t prevent family relationships from staying steady with their strengths and weaknesses, but unfortunately they do. Blain uses a variety of techniques to show how the events and choices of the past impact on the decisions made by the characters in the narrative present. Blain uses a structure that correlates past events with present events in a way that makes sense throughout the novel. There are two storylines, one of a past memory and one of the narrative present, that are based around one past event. As particular events from the past are uncovered, the storyline in the narrative present continues, affected by that past event. When the characters in the narrative present become aware of certain events in the past, their thoughts and beliefs change; hence impacting decisions they are faced with. Blain’s use of point of view allows the reader to see each character from only one person’s perspective. Blain wrote this novel in Ursula’s point of view; hence the reader only sees how Ursula perceives her friends and family. By reading a novel in one person’s perspective, the reader can understand why the narrator makes particular decisions as the reader knows the narrator’s thoughts and motives. Blain uses symbolism and setting as techniques to express description. The symbol/setting of old stairs symbolises Ursula’s state of life in the narrative present and past. Blain reuses symbols to develop ideas, making them clearer to her audience.
The way that Blain structured the novel Candelo is so that certain past events associate with certain present events. As truths are revealed and the story of the past trip to Candelo unfolds, the narrative present storyline is affected. When the characters in the narrative present learn of certain past events, the way they look at decisions they are faced with change. In some cases in Candelo, it is knowledge that the characters already know...