Narrative Criticism of McPhee :: Monopoly New Jersey Essays

Narrative Criticism of McPhee "Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred dollars." We’ve all heard these phrasesfromthe board game Monopoly. Monopoly, however, isn’t merely a game.It wasbased on an actual city. "The Search for Marvin Gardens" tells of Monopoly’s relation to Atlantic City, NJ. In this narrative criticism I will examine several main characteristics of the piece. In doing so, I will try to answer the question, "How has Atlantic City changed due to a greedy, capitalistic attitude?" I believe that this question makes a good connection to thepiece’s description of the changes in the features of the city. "The Search forMarvin Gardens" is a section of the book Pieces of the Frame byJohn McPhee. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux published the piece in 1975. Thecomposition itself is fifteen pages long. It tells of Monopoly’s connectionsto a realworld location, Atlantic City, NJ. In order to write a narrative criticism of McPhee’s "The Search for Marvin Gardens",I firstread and gave a comprehensive examination of the narrative. To dothis,I looked at several characteristics of the piece. I decided that thesetting,the characters, and the theme were the most important characteristicstothis piece. Other characteristics such as the narrator, events, temporalrelations, casual relations, and audience are not quite as important inmycriticism of this piece. To look at the important characteristics, youmustask yourself questions about the piece. How does the setting changethroughoutthe piece? How does the setting relate to the plot and characters?How isthe setting created? Who are the main characters? What are the physicalandmental traits of the characters? What is the major theme of the narrative?There are several other questions you may ask, but they do not prove asrelevantto this piece. The aforementioned questions are significant becausethey helpanswer t he research question. A participant in a game of Monopoly narrates the piece. He not only pictures the game board. He sees the corresponding locations in Atlantic City. The plot line ofthe story follows the narrator in search of Marvin Gardens. Along the wayhe sees the difference between the way things were, and the way they usedto be. In "The Search for Marvin Gardens", there are basically four physical settings: the Monopoly tournament, Marvin Gardens, Atlantic City of the past, and Atlantic Cityin the 1970s. McPhee alternates between the settings with great regularity,and the tempo of the story is constantly changing.