g.The most significant character that is not present in the movie is the narrator. The narrator is the root of Brinks entire theme. It is the narrator who Ben has come to in his desperation. Ben knows that he is not going to be around much longer, and needs the story to be told. Since the narrator is a writer he seems the perfect choice. But the narrator seems not to want Bens burden at first. He says in the fourth paragraph of the novel, And here Im stuck with the litter of another mans life spread over my desk. The diaries, the notes, the disconnected scribblings... (Brink 9). The narrator is faced with the same situation that Ben was faced with when Gordon and Emily came to him in the beginning of his story- is this mans burden his own as well? And by telling his story, the narrator presents the same question to the reader. Although the book is unable to predict how the reader will deal with the situation, one can see how the evidence that is laid before him effects the narrator. Right away the narrator seems to have a type of common ground with Ben. Both Ben and the narrator have experienced a dry white season of sorts- Ben had to face the drought with his father and the sheep, and the narrator is facing a creative drought in his writing. He describes it as part of a vast apathy which has been paralyzing me for months. Ive known dry patches in the past, and I have always been able to write myself out of them again. But nothing comparable to this arid present landscape (Brink 11). It is important that the narrator finds himself in a dry white season now, as did Ben. The narrator proceeds to relate to Ben more and more as the novel continues. In the beginning of the novel the narrator tells Bens story in third person. As the story goes on, however, the story shifts to being told in first person as Bens own journals are used more and more to tell his story. It seems as though the narrator can no longer be objective ...
