A FORMALISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE STORY MONSOON COUNTRY

Pira Sudham’s “Monsoon Country” is a fictional novel that gives readers a

glimpse of what is it like growing up in the rural upbringings of Thailand – as described
and illustrated by the author in Prem’s childhood experiences from the excerpt. Based
from its overall context, the story features some of Thailand’s different customs and
spiritual beliefs that holistically influence the characters’ personality, decisions, and
movements in the story. Looking at the story in a formalistic approach, it is observed
that the author uses imagery and different styles and approaches to effectively portray
to the readers his message as implied and stated in the story.

From the title “Monsoon country” alone, the readers can easily imply that the
story is set in a tropical country that usually experiences rainy and sunny seasons like
Thailand. Although the novel’s title seems farfetched from the usual trend,
unexpectedly, the title itself was actually well-thought for the reason that it expresses
something from the story that could be of great value for the characters and
foreshadows a vital that is crucial in the overall plot of the story.

At first glance, it is evident that the author uses the third person’s point of view
perspective to the narrate story, which means that the author wrote the story as if he
was an observer of the different events that happened in the story and sets the stage for
the readers to understand the different elements that were collectively acting on the
characters.

The author’s use of extensive imagery and descriptions made the passage
appear to be very long yet at the same time, made the story thoroughly well-defined and
vivid especially when it comes to the spiritual, socio-economic, and political aspects
described in the story. In this way, the author allows the readers to understand the
story’s context that can help them develop a deeper understanding of the plot.

It was evident that Pira Sudham used different approaches to describe and
directly and or indirectly introduce his characters. When he described Piang, Prem’s
older sister, he used statements that would describe her actions that allow the readers
to imply that she is a loving and defensive sibling.