Unity in Retrospective Narrative.

The situation at the beginning and the conclusion are to the retrospective narrative what a frame is to a picture. The frame satisfies our sense of completeness, thus serving an 'artistic end besides its utilitarian use in preserving the picture. It says for the picture, "This is all." In a narrative also we like to feel quite clearly that the end has come. This use of the situation and the conclusion is one way to secure unity or oneness of impression in a narrative. The student should remember hereafter what is meant by "framing a picture" when we talk of narration. The use of the characterizing sentence at the begin¬ning of the retrospective narrative is another means of securing unity.

This principle of unity is very important — not only in telling a story, but in writing a description, an exposition, an argument, or any combination of these. We shall find it appearing in all our study of composition, and a large part of our task will be to preserve unity in the various themes we shall write. Indeed, many of the rules and directions we have learned, or shall learn, are really means of securing unity. The discussion of this law is much fuller under the subject of Description.