The Edge of the Alphabet by Janet Frame
"The Edge of the Alphabet" is a novel by Janet Frame that explores themes of marginality and the search for identity through the experiences of its characters. The story is narrated by Thora Pattern and centers on Toby Withers, an epileptic New Zealander who travels to London in search of his “center” and an understanding of his fragmented self. Alongside Toby are Zoe Bryce, an English schoolteacher, and Pat Keenan, an Irish bus driver, all of whom embody various forms of marginalization—be it social, economic, or cultural. Frame uses the metaphor of the "edge of the alphabet" to symbolize the peripheral nature of their experiences and the struggle for legitimacy in a world dominated by a so-called center. Toby's journey to London represents a desire to harness language and creativity, yet he discovers that even at the literary center, he remains alienated and unable to articulate his experiences. Ultimately, the narrative suggests that the absence of a clear center is a legitimate aspect of human existence, as Toby learns that returning home may provide a newfound acceptance of himself. This novel delves into the complexities of self-realization and the fluidity of identity in a world that often marginalizes those who exist outside societal norms.
On this Page
The Edge of the Alphabet by Janet Frame
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1962
Type of work: Novel
The Work
The Edge of the Alphabet was written after Frame’s travels to England and, like her other novels, contains elements of autobiography. The novel is narrated by Thora Pattern, one of many elusive impostor narrators to be encountered in Frame’s novels. She tells the story of Toby Withers (the same name, but not the same character as in Owls Do Cry), who is an epileptic New Zealander traveling to London to find his “center.” Equally important are Zoe Bryce, an English spinster schoolteacher, and Pat Keenan, an Irish bus driver. What they all have in common is their marginality, something that many of Frame’s characters possess. Marginality can be defined as a distance from a privileged center, whether that distance be social (the misfit or outcast), economic (the poor or the working class), political (the unsophisticated colonial), or sexual (the unloved spinster). Frame’s novels often explore the process and effects of marginalization.
The edge of the alphabet is a metaphor for what is peripheral or marginalized, and it works on several levels. Toby, for instance, is marginalized by his epilepsy. He is not normal, not acceptable to other people. Even in his inner world, he is alienated from his central self by his fragmenting epileptic fits. He is further marginalized by being a New Zealander, someone far from the geographical “center” that England represents. When Toby mentions in England that he is from New Zealand, people ask him if that is somewhere in Australia. For people at the “center,” the periphery is inconsequential. In traveling to the center—London—Toby is also looking for his self, a self from which he is distanced by inner and outer conditions. Thora Pattern, the narrator, asks, “And what if we meet ourselves on the edge of the Alphabet and can make no sign, no speech?” For some, living far from the “center” deprives them of the possibility of fitting in with others, or even with themselves. Marginalization denies legitimacy. Nevertheless, a central argument in the book and a general one in all of Frame’s novels is that the absence of a center is legitimated as a part of human experience. From one standpoint, as Toby says, “Everybody comes from the other side of the world.” There is no real “center.” London is simply “the other side.”
The primary reason for Toby’s trip is to write his book The Lost Tribe. London represents for him the center of writing (the alphabet), just as New Zealand symbolizes the edge. At the center, Toby hopes to be able to control and master words, but as he sits down to write in his exercise book, he discovers that, even at the center, language is elusive. Toby’s inability to write The Lost Tribe comes to represent the absence of centrality, since for him the center turns out to be no better than the margin. Furthermore, to complete a book suggests closure, and that is seen to be an illusion, an obstacle to the truth of self-realization as a continual process. In the end, Toby returns to New Zealand, where, ironically, he is more acceptable after having been overseas.
Bibliography
Ashcroft, Bill, et al., eds. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures. New York: Routledge, Chapman & Hall, 1989.
Delbaere, Jeanne, ed. The Ring of Fire: Essays on Janet Frame. Sydney, N.S.W.: Dangaroo Press, 1992.
Evans, Patrick. Janet Frame. Boston: Twayne, 1977.
King, Michael. An Inward Sun: The World of Janet Frame. Auckland, New Zealand: Penguin Books, 2002.
King, Michael. Wrestling with an Angel: A Life of Janet Frame. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 2000.
Oettli-van Delden, Simone. Surfaces of Strangeness: Janet Frame and the Rhetoric of Madness. Wellington, New Zealand: Victorian University Press, 2003.
Panny, Judith Dell. I Have What I Gave. New York: George Braziller, 1993. Rev. ed. Palmerston North, New Zealand: Dunmore Press, 2002.
Ross, Robert L., ed. International Literature in English: Essays on the Major Writers. New York: Garland, 1991.
Wilkse, Maria. Materialisations of a Woman Writer: Investigating Janet Frame’s Biographical Legend. New York: P. Lang, 2006.