Analyse af Jeffrey Archers 'A Wasted Hour'

The assignment will start with an introduction of Jeffrey Archer, the author of the “A Wasted Hour” story. After the introduction the analysis part of the assignment will take place, with a focus on characterization, narration, point of view and then the theme of the story. There will be a conclusion at the end.

Jeffrey Archer is an English author and former politician, he was a Member of Parliament. He debuted with the novel: “Not a Penny More, Not a Penny less”, and many more releases since then, including “A Wasted Hour”, which was a part of a story collection called “Tell Tale”, which was released in 2017.

The story is about a young Stanford student named Kelley, who is an aspiring writer. Kelley thumbed a lift back to campus the last three years, to save money and to meet interesting people with exciting stories to share. She ends up encountering a quite fascinating man, with an interesting story to tell her on her lift back to school.

The story is told by a third person narrator, with limited knowledge. The narrator has limited knowledge because it has insight into Kelley’s life, thoughts and feelings but not others (John). The narrator doesn’t share its feelings or thoughts with the reader, which makes it an objective narrator. The narrator just observes Kelley during different occasions that happens in her life, an example of this happens on page 2, life 49-51: “‘Thanks for stopping,’ she said. ‘My name’s Kelley.’ ‘John,’ he replied, taking one hand off the wheel to shake hands with her. The rough hands of a farm labourer, was her first thought”. In this example the narrator doesn’t give the reader any insight of John’s thoughts. The reader is witnessing the dialogue and the description of John through Kelley’s perspective.