The prologue in the book of Jonah
begins with an introduction of the protagonist, who is Jonah himself, and continues
to prepare the reader for the rest of the narrative with vital information.
This can be found in verses 1:1-3.
The plot is the order
from God to Jonah to preach to the people of Nineveh, Jonah refuses, and
eventually is presented with a problem. As the plot thickens, in the end of
chapter one Jonah is swallowed by a great fish. This could possibly be the
beginning of a sub-plot since the development of the main character changes in
a dramatic way. 
The characters are Jonah, God, the
sailors and the people of Nineveh. Jonah in this story is the protagonist since
he is introduced as the main character of the story that is presented with a
problem. Jonah’s character is also one dimensional which leads one to believe
that he is of flat character. The antagonist is
the sum of what God adds to the development of Jonah’s character. With that in
mind the antagonist’s character in this narrative is
definitely round in nature because there are many dimensions to this particular
role.
The agents in the story, the sailors and the people of
Nineveh also seem to be of flat character because they really only serve one
purpose in the story. The sailors could possibly have some traces of round
character because of the ethical lessons that are displayed through their
existence in the story such as their final decision to believe in God. If this
were a children’s book, one could consider the worm that ate the vine away to
have a non-character type because it simply moves the story along and nothing
else.
Selectivity
The selectivity involved was clearly chosen
to make the narrative applicable to the reader. What is meant is this; the
scenarios that happen to Jonah are necessary in selectivity in order to allow
the reader to understand the purpose for writing the book of Jonah. Take for
instance the vine in chapter four verses five through eleven.
In summary, this part of the story goes like this; Jonah was
uncomfortable so God made a vine that grew up over his head and Jonah was happy
about the vine. Then God provided a worm to eat the vine away and when the sun
rose, God provided a scorching wind that really made Jonah uncomfortable. Then
Jonah thought to himself ‘it would be better for me to die.’ So what happens is
God uses this vine to show Jonah how important the people of Nineveh are to Him
because they are people and Jonah’s vine, is just a vine.
Dialogue
Though generally speaking,
narratives usually don’t have much dialogue but considering that this book is
only four chapters long, the percentage of how much is used is
slightly above normal. This can be seen with the sailors in chapter one verses
six through twelve and again in most of chapter four where Jonah appears to be
conversing with God through prayer.
Table summarizing percentage of dialogue
|
|
Jonah + God
|
Seven Verses
|
Jonah + Sailors
|
Six Verses
|
·
Consider the
fact that there are only 48 verses in the whole book. Over one fourth is
dialogue.
·
Consider the
fact that this is a narrative which generally doesn’t have much dialogue.
|
|
Poetry
There is an obvious use of Hebrew
poetry used in chapter two of the narrative and is just more unnecessary proof
that Hebrew poetry is very spontaneously used in much of the ancient world.
This literary device highlights Jonah’s despair and how he remembers his Lord,
as we can see in verse seven, and his dedication or possibly rededication to
the Lord.
Sarcasm and Ridicule
By the tone of the author of this
narrative, in my opinion, there is a considerable amount of sarcasm in Jonah’s
voice. First of all, he was obviously preaching while he didn’t want to as we
can see in the first verse of chapter four. Then, he was greatly displeased and
became angry because his predictions of what was going to happen were correct;
God would not destroy them.
Dramatic Reversal
In my opinion, there are many
dramatic reversals in the book of Jonah considering how short the book actually
is. The first one can be found in chapter one where Jonah runs away from God.
The next one can be found also in chapter one where Jonah is thrown overboard
by the sailors and then we see the next obvious one where Jonah is swallowed by
a great fish. One could consider when Jonah was in the fish, his reaction, to
be a dramatic reversal but honestly I’m sure most people would be repenting
rather quickly if they found themselves in the belly of a great fish. I would
consider the fact that Jonah is unhappy to the point of death a dramatic
reversal, because most of the time God’s prophets are loving and gentle.
Narrative Functions
One would think that the structure
of the whole story can be found by studying the functions of the narrative. For
the functions cannot be understood without proper structure. For instance,
leading up to chapter four is what makes chapter four understood as having a
theological function which is the fact that God loves and cares for everyone in
the world and not just the Jews, or the people who are in nature of good
report. Chapter four reveals the nature of God which shows the readers and
Jonah, that he loves all people.
Analysis of poetic sub-genre in
chapter two of Jonah
In the beginning of verse five, one
can see that there is a synonymous parallelism used to explain the positioning
of where Jonah was before being rescued by the Lord. It seems at though the
beginning of verse six is synonymous to the statement in verse five and also
with itself. There are mostly bicolons in this particular poem but as we can
see in verses three and five of chapter two, there are tricolons at the
beginnings of the verses. We can also see that there stanzas at the beginning
of verse seven because a new idea is introduced of the last stanza. We can also
see this same thing happening at the beginning of verse eight.
As one can observe, there are
somewhat great shifts in emotion in this poem which allows this to be labeled a
lyrical poem because it without question, communicates feeling. Although
lessons could be taken from this poem such as in verse eight which says, “Those
who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs” (NIV,
Jonah 2:8), this poem should be generally labeled lyrical because the majority
of the poem is expressing feeling.
Written by Nace Howell through the grace of the Lord Jesus
© Nace Howell, 2022
Works Cited
The Holy Bible: New International Version, electronic ed.
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984).
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