Controlled and Unaware

           Trap: “Any device, stratagem, trick, or the like for catching a person unawares” (Dictionary.com). As I began reading the novel If on a Winter’s Night, by Italo Calvino, I would define myself as trapped, a word the author mentions throughout Chapter 1. The use of 2nd person throughout the section really took me off guard, as I am not used to reading a piece of literature in that fashion. I felt like I was on a personal basis with the narrator, as if he or she knew me; it was like having a one-way conversation. “You are at your desk, you have set the book among your business papers as if by chance; at a certain moment you shift a file and you find the book before your eyes, you open it absently, you rest your elbows on the desk…” (7). This passage, along with most of the first Chapter, seem to be subtle commands.

        The narrator talked a great deal about distractions and other things that would get in the way of concentrating on reading, but I found that because of that, my mind didn’t wander away from what I was reading. The narrator talked about how the television usually blares in the other room, so you should close your door, but I found myself not thinking about whether the television was on in the other room or not, because the matter was being addressed as I read. It felt as if someone was controlling not just my thoughts, but me. As I read, I pictured some kind of movie, where a person’s mind was overtaken, and someone was speaking to them within, telling them what their every move, every thought would be.

          This idea of a sense of being controlled was even stronger for me as I transitioned into the section If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler. The narration switches to 3rd person but the idea of being trapped and controlled prevailed. Page 14 of the novel was the biggest contributor to these feelings. Phrases like “I only know,” “the people from whom I am to receive instructions,” and “I am a subordinate,” give way to my assumptions that the narrator knows not what they are to do, and they are inferior to someone, who is indefinitely in control.

        I also came to wonder if the author purposely ended things short, giving the reader leeway in making assumptions or finishing conclusions about the stories and the characters themselves. To begin with, the title doesn’t even sound finished: If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler. If on a winter’s night a traveler what? I think that leaves a lot of open area for the reader to see what the traveler is doing throughout the story, rather than just judging and interpreting what they think they should read due to a title. The characterization of the characters seemed to me, to also be left up to the reader: “The author… decided to call the character ‘I’ as if to conceal him” (15). It seemed to me that “I” was almost hidden in every aspect, like thoughts, feelings, physical descriptions, and left up to me to determine who he or she was.

           Thus far, the reading has greatly captured my attention, although it has been a lot different from my “normal” read. However, I have enjoyed it because of that, and can’t wait to finish the rest.