Throughout much of This Earth of Mankind, Minke is the main narrator. However, we often encounter narration by other characters. For instance, in our recent reading we come upon the testimony of Maiko. Why might have Pramoedya used these devices and what effect does it have? In chapter 10, Minke explains the reason for his inclusion of court testimonies is because he “consider[s] the time sequence to be important”, what might he mean by that? Would anything be lost if these stories were all told by a single narrator?
We see in page 189 that Minke speaks of a tension that has overcome him and has resulted in developing a “headache”. It is after his reading of Miriam’s letter that does this tension slip away and “that the world became brighter