Discussion Board Response

Illustrative and literary elements in Voices in the park are very important to make the story meaningful and pleasure for readers to read.  The main literary elements in this story would be the characters and the point of view of each of these characters. It was recounted in four different ways by each of the characters who depicts on their experience and feelings while they were at the park.

 The first attraction to the story would be the characters are not humans but gorillas. So in the first voice, the colour of the pictures in the park are very bright and this reflects on Charlie’s mother who portrayed to be wealthy and fierce women who expects Charlie to behave and shows a good imagine of himself where ever he goes. So when she discovered that Charlie was missing, the zoom-in picture of the tree reflects the effect of her anger while shouting out for Charlie. In the second voice, the pictures and background effects are quite dull to reflect on Smudge’s father’s sad character that was jobless and was looking for a job. In the third voice, the greyish background reflects of Charlie’s character of being lonely and unhappy. The background colour brightens up when Charlie met Smudge. This reveals to the readers on the transformation of Charlie’s feelings from being sad to happy.  In the last voice, the backgrounds are very bright and perky to reflect on Smudge’s character of being a cheerful girl who adds a spark to Charlie’s life and cheers up her father.

Thus, the background colour and the pictures in the book reflects on the character’s mood and characteristic.

Browne’s “Voices in the Park” was the first of his works that fully recognized the use of “zoomorphic” characters. Hence, making reference to your observation, Browne has substituted human beings with the forms of gorillas in this picture book.

You have also mentioned that the story has been recounted from the perspective of four characters. I would like to add on to your observation by...