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Discuss the Authors Treatment of time in a novel you have studied Kate Atkinson uses the treatment of time very effectively in her novel Behind the scenes at the museum. Her Main Character Ruby narrates us through the story using an omniscient voice of a child. She tells us of her past but at the same time, she questions the truth about her family and her self-identity. This essay seeks to discover how Atkinson uses the past, footnotes, setting and her post modernist style as a technique in the treatment of time. The narrative is a common first person narrative, but at the same time, it is very unusual. Ruby speaks in the present tense but knows the future and what people are thinking. This technique gives Ruby a more “knowing” voice that can see ahead of us but is still unable to share with us the withdrawn knowledge that she is trying to find out herself. This is shown from the very first lines of the novel; “I exist! I am conceived to the chimes of midnight on the clock on the mantelpiece in the room across the hall.” This is where Ruby talks about her own conception which is very unusual as it seems impossible to be able talk about your own birth while being conceived. At the same time Atkinson is able