Tod Friendly's relationship with the narrator and its importance are the focus of this analysis of Time's Arrow by Martin Amis consisting of seven pages. There are no other sources listed.
Name of Research Paper File: JR7_RAamis.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
utilizes flashbacks, but a novel that truly offers up the story of one mans life in reverse, beginning with his death and essentially ending with his beginning. The narrator of
this story is unnamed and is by all intents and purposes a soul that is trapped in the head of the main character, Tod Friendly. The relationship that Tod and
the narrator share is incredibly tense at times, powerfully enlightening, and filled with numerous levels of development. In the following paper we examine this relationship, discussing its importance and significance.
Tod and the Soul From the beginning until the end, or perhaps the end until the beginning, the soul consistently examines his relationship with Tod Friendly. In the
beginning of the story we see the soul awake in the mind of the man who has just come back to life. We see "with the jump leads, like two
telephones (white - white-hot), they zapped my chest. Finally, before they went away, one of them kissed me," giving us a look at life awakening to a strange degree (Amis
NA). From this simple beginning we see the soul, or the narrator, talking in the first person and also talking in the place of Tod, who cannot talk for us.
The narrator, in these regards, is Tod, though clearly an observer at the same time. In this we are introduced to a very odd relationship that will serve to offer
us a great deal of variation throughout the story. From the distance the two will experience in terms of attitudes and perspectives, to the similarities, where the soul will take
on the persona of Tod completely, we follow the story through the narrator and thus through Tod as well. In understanding some of the possible foundations for the story