Structuralism

An Old Fashioned Story 

by Laurie Colwin

Synopsis 

Elizabeth Leapold was born pretty , but rebellious girl who forced to spend her time with Nelson Rodker, a boring boy who never misbehaves. Elizabeth's parents hope that one day she will marry Nelson, but Elizabeth secretly loathes Nelson and can't wait to leave her parents. When she is finally able to leave for college, Elizabeth is able to delight in wild acts such as reading in her apartment. While she still occasionally sees  Nelson to keep her parents from asking questions. She also enters relationship with a man named Roy, who repeatedly leaves and returns to her. Later at a Christmas party, Elizabeth leaves with Nelson's deliquent brother, James, in order to spite her parents. Finding James to be surprisingly boring, she chooses to no longer have a relationship with him. Catching a bad cold she retires on her apartment for a week until Nelson arrives, confesses his love for her, then kisses her, proving that he is spontaneous and they live happily ever after.
 a pretty, but rebellious girl 

Criticism

Laurie Colwin’s  “An Old Fashioned Story” is a perfect example of structuralism because the language itself speaks in behalf of the story. Structuralist approach sees unity and coherence in the text, in this story we can easily determine the effects of the character’s actions through their unified gestures and emotions in a structured language. We can also say that this novel was only derived or inspired from the other stories due to the common concepts or settings shown in the story; like for example Elizabeth, has a character distinctions derived from the expected audience. Being rebellious teenage girl who only wants to spite her parents by doing something that will definitely they won’t like. Nelson Rodker, the good guy and his “knight with shining armor ” just like in other fairy tales, the one who empathize in her worse condition and confess his love to her. Each scene gives the readers a wild guess on what will happen on the next chapters for the entire story is perfectly connected and structured.