In the novels The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Girls Of Slender Means the author Muriel Spark uses narrative structure as a means of control over her events. Her technique is manipulated in an expert fashion, and contributes to the depth and meaning of the book.
Throughout The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie the author toys with the reader, changing their perceptions of who is truly the main character. At the beginning of the book we are led to believe that the main character is Miss Brodie; after all, the book's title contains her name, and we at first believe it is an eponymous novel, with the heroine as Miss Brodie, an adult among children, a school teacher in a class of twelve-year-old girls. Spark is conveying the message that life is not as simple as it might seem, thus there is a discrepancy between appearance and the true reality, and that it is her novel, and she is in control, and ergo our assumptions can be incorrect.
…
