When annotating Mosiah 11, in addition to character development, I decided to focus on what the text was trying to tell the audience. Who was the audience? And whose voice is dominating the conversation? As I looked for clues, I realized that the majority of the text is narrated by Mormon and written in the third person. The genre is a combination of the abridgment of Mormon, as he condenses a very long historical record with a didactic narrative approach in explaining what happened, but half way through, the text switches to a journal entry and then to the dialogue. "We and I" become the dominating voice as the people speak and as Abinadi relays the voice of the lord to the "wicked" people. As I looked at themes in describing the kingdom of king Noah, Mormon uses language such as "wicked, whoredomes, abominations, and iniquity" Abinadi uses words such as "repentance, deliverance, and prayer." I hadn't noticed before, but the language regarding a monarchy drastically changes when Mormon is speaking about King Noah in comparison to King Benjamin. Over and over again, Mormon mentions how the people become wicked because of King Noah's corrupt rule. It made me question: what is Mormon trying to teach his audience and to whom does he believe he's speaking to? Could Mormon be suggesting that a monarchy is not the way a people should be ruled, despite the fact that there can be righteous kings as well? And how do social classes form when the people become wicked? How does God view classes in this society? I feel like each element of the text suggested a deeper meaning as I stove to dig a little deeper to find meaning of why Mormon was writing this and to what audience. It feels as though there are innumerable avenues of meaning one can gleam from the literary text of the Book of Mormon.
I love all the questions that you asked toward the end of your comments. It seems like looking at The Book of Mormon under a different context brings to light new questions that were not easily seen before, but looking it as a piece of literature helps to see bigger ideas as well as more minute details. The different tone of Mormon is interesting to study to better understand what he was intending to say.
ReplyDeleteDid reading this from a different point of view and with a different motive make it easier or harder for you to find answers to these questions?
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad that you are asking all of these questions, as it is critical to remember Mormon as the narrator here as we're studying the Book of Mormon as literature. It makes you question how much of Mormon's personal beliefs and biases are influencing the descriptions we read of these characters and stories.
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