The Nest

“The Nest” by Paul Jennings impacts readers through the significant and powerful themes it presents which are conveyed to the readers through narrative and literary techniques. Throughout the novel the protagonist, Robin, suffers from intolerable images that keep flashing in his head. This introduces the main theme, that dark and disturbing thoughts are an unavoidable and natural part of being human. Coping with them enables you to appreciate the good aspects of life. Secondly, the importance of finding truth to resolve your problems and find peace. Jennings presents these themes through clever narrative and literary techniques, including a first person narration, motifs, short stories interspersed throughout the novel and the use of the thriller genre, more specifically foreshadowing and red herrings. Paul intrigues and confronts his readers through the themes he presents.

Paul Jennings presents significant and powerful themes through clever techniques like the use of the first person narrative. It is through this technique that Jennings reveals the first significant theme of dark and disturbing thoughts. These thoughts are unavoidable and a natural part of being human. Coping with them enables you to appreciate the good aspects of life. All of this is displayed through the protagonist, Robin. Robin’s mind is very uncontrollable and he cannot help what disturbing images flash though it. As the story progresses the images and thoughts are more regular, by the end the brutality takes the novel deeper into the thriller genre. “I’d momentarily seen myself gutting him with the icepick”. It is through this narration that readers see this slow progression until the climatic ending. The use of first person narration is an important tool used throughout the novel by Jennings to convey Robin’s innermost thoughts and emotions, which the audience would be lost without.

The theme of dark and disturbing thoughts is perfectly portrayed through Robin and the use of the...