The Eye Of The Storm

As an important writing technique, the stream of consciousness has been applied by many well-known novelists and has attracted a lot of readers as well. The stream-of-consciousness novels lay stress on the inner experience of characters to reveal their feelings, thoughts, and actions, following an associative rather than a logical sequence, with no comments from the author. White is regarded as one of the most outstanding Australian novelists because of his employment of the stream-of-consciousness technique in some of his novels, and The Eye of the Storm is said to be the most important stream-of-consciousness novel in Australian literature. This thesis first examines the features of the stream of consciousness in the novel and points out the differences between it and the traditional novels. Then it explores some of the methods used in this novel as regards the stream-of-consciousness techniques: free association, interior monologue, montage, and dream. And to help illustrate, examples are taken to show how each of them works in the novel. Also, two narrative forms in the novel are given an elaborate analysis: impressionism and poetic orientation.