Jostein Gaarder’s the orange girl as a modern fairytale

Abstract

This present research work attempts to study Jostein Gaarder’s The Orange Girl (2004) as a modern fairytale by examining the subtle fairytale narrative techniques in a modern context. It is modern in the sense that though the author makes use of the elements of mystery intended for the young boy, he does not follow the appropriate sequence of plot elements and character archetypes similar to those in the fairy tales. Gaarder leads the readers to a philosophical inquiry about human existence and this world by exploiting few elements of fairytales. He sets the story in the modern setting, the real towns of Norway, and uses the scientific realism instead of magic realism as he frequently talks about the progress of Hubble Space Telescope and gives factual dates in the course of narrating the story.