Charming Billy Blog 1

Charming Billy, by Alice McDermott: Techniques to Engage Readers

          Specific passages in the novel aim specifically to engage its audience. It is crucial that the author does this early on or the reader will become uninterested. One particular excerpt, as early as page 4 of the novel, illustrates that McDermott mastered the timing aspect. She writes,

                    Billy had died an alcoholic. Last night, in his casket, his face was bloated to twice its size and his skin was dark brown. (Dennis himself, my father, when he had identified the body two days ago at the VA, had said at first, momentarily relieved from the fact that Billy was dead, "But this is a colored man.") Billy had drunk himself to death. He had, at some point, ripped apart, plowed through, as alcoholics tend to do, the great, deep, tightly woven fabric of affection that was some part of the emotional life, the life of love, of everyone in the room. Everyone loved him.

          Several points within this excerpt capture the reader's interest and encourage the reader to continue the story. The first thing that pulls the audience into the pages is the immediate presentation of conflict. Billy's death is immediately identified as the focal point of the story, intriguing the audience and causing them to anticipate details of the happening. 

          The gruesome imagery describing the condition Billy was in upon discovery horrifies the audience to an extent that makes them eager to continue. That's the peculiar thing about humans that McDermott seemed to understand- the more awful something is, the more interesting it is to others. It sounds awful, but no one would read a happy story if it wasn't mixed with some grief and suffering. The detail put into Billy's dead body shocks readers while engaging them in the story.

          Repetition of an idea in the passage adds emphasis to it. It is first stated that "Billy died an alcoholic." Later, the sentence is paraphrased as, "Billy had drunk himself to death." It makes it more real, as if the narrator is repeating it because he or she still can't believe it happened. 

          The final piece that reveals the author's intentional techniques was the boost to Billy's credibility. It is mentioned that "everyone loved him" causing the reader to sympathize with him because he was evidently a wonderful man. The evocation of feeling for Billy makes the plot more attention-grabbing for the reader. Nothing is worse than not caring about a character. The readers are expertly engaged through introduction of conflict, figurative language, and character development.