Representing Characters' Speech and Thought in R. M. Ballantyne’s the Coral Island

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the representation of characters' speech and thought in R. M. Ballantyne’s The Coral Island. The Victorian novel belongs to the Robinsonade, island, adventure and children’s literature tradition. Three boys, are shipwrecked to a coral island of the South Seas. They have enjoyed the beauty of the paradise-like coral islands and had amazing experiences. On the other hand, they have encountered conflicts from different sources: nature, pirates and the natives who are savages, cannibals and bloodthirsty. United against all sources of antagonism, they have returned back home to set a victorious/adventurous example/model to young English teenagers. The analysis, here, adopts an integrated approach of language and literature. For the purposes of linguistic analysis, the researcher adopts a modified stylistic speech and thought presentation model (Short 1996: 286-311). The check-list of linguistic indicators of point of view, with some modification, is from Short (1996): given vs. new information/definite and indefinite articles, schema-oriented language and deixis/value-laden expressions. The discussion and results in this research show how speech and thought presentation is utilized in away to reveal how Ballantyne uses the “The Coral Island” as a carrier of ideology to represent colonial and imperial values that are characteristic of the Victorian age.