John Fowles - collector of reader interpretations

Turn inside out the usual, go to any issue from the depths of consciousness - this is how postmodernism works, exemplified by John Fowles. "Collector" (the summary of which is not able to convey the depth of the work) is an anti-roman that has gone down in history.

A brief excursus into love madness

Winning the lottery breaks down life, and not just one. Clerk City Hall Fredrik Clegg quietly collects butterflies, but one of them remains inaccessible - Miranda Gray, an attractive and educated student. Obsessed with it, the hero is going to fill up the collection, dreams that love will be tied between them. Although there could be a place for romantic history, reality is completely different.

A novel about unrequited love, insanity, kidnapping - all this was collected in one work by John Fowles. "Collector" is imbued with postmodernism. And only he is able to show objective reality through the nature of subjective reality.

Two sides of the coin: love and hate

John Fowles is a collector of duality. In his novel he pushed two worlds, two perceptions, and at the same time made the heroes hostage to reality. Miranda is kidnapped and distant from the world, and Clegg has long lived in his own space of illusions. Using this duality, Fowles manipulates the reader's view, offering two views on one situation. The narrative technique leads to a clash of points of view not only with respect to motives and goals perceived as determining factors of the plot, but also in an appeal to the moral principles of the reader.

"Social contradictions and moral opposition" - a theme for the first novel was chosen by John Fowles. "Collector" opens the beginning of the experiment with the submission of material. To show the different norms to which heroes are accustomed, the author created an individual manner of narration for each of them. Miranda speaks with the reader in the "voice" of her diary, full of artistic images and intellectual statements. Clegg approaches the capture of Miranda, as if to solve a mathematical problem. He finds nothing wrong with his actions and justifies himself. The reader is easily involved in the author's game and empathizes with the kidnapper along with his victim, who decides the emotional dilemma of imprisonment.

At the same time, the author acts as a psychiatrist observing the behavior of his own creations. Somewhere at the bottom of the basement Clegg tries to create Eden, remote from the worldly vanity. He reaches for Miranda, like an anime, because he was devoid of love since his early childhood. The hero is looking for that care that he did not get from his mother. He lacks a strong sense of identity, which would help determine the roles of people met on the path of life. Clegg never felt loved. All the important relationships in his life ended in tragedy, because he is simply unable to love the girl and explain it to her.

The Tale of a fragile butterfly is the basis of the imagery of the novel

The ability to listen to the two sides of one story and draw a conclusion based on the experience that has been lived with the characters is the goal that John Fowles posed. "Collector" is a unique example of postmodern literature that uses various techniques to influence the reader's psyche with the help of images. Is it worth choosing one of the parties?

One of the most powerful interpretations of the phrase "butterfly in the belly", which is now actively used by young people, gave the world John Fowles. "Collector," which refers to violence, opens the topic with images. Butterflies became a symbol of unrequited love, experienced like a disease. Through the collection of insects, the protagonist displays sadistic inclinations - forever depriving them of wings. Miranda, being captured by Clegg, remains free in her dreams, where she can fly.

Butterflies act as a separator of class differences, as shown in the episode of acquaintance with the collection. Although Fred Clegg is endowed with a multidimensional character, Miranda on his background seems more than a man - a treasure that he sought all his life. And although the hero did everything possible, in his opinion, to create an idyll, but could not save the girl from cold and death. Clegg, like a real collector, pursues another woman, on which the novel ends, permeated with hundreds of feelings.