Authors each have their own unique style that is used in a specific way to paint the image and send the message desired. The styles of the novels Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx are examples of two extremes. In the mysteriously realistic Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad uses the complex and vividly descriptive style popular to his post Victorian age of elaborate literature. On the other extreme of the style spectrum, E. Annie Proulx uses an experimental darkly comic style to mold the reader’s emotions. The surreal humor she spread throughout her unorthodox style of the novel corresponds with this modern age.

Conrad’s decision to use his specific style was influenced by two major factors; the age in which he was living and his diverse ethic background. His work straddled the Victorian age and the post Victorian or modern age. His prose is graphically descriptive and composed of complexly written paragraphs, rarely using single sentences. His sentence structure of piling details onto details then concluding with a statement to finally bring sense to his thought strongly compliments the high expectations of his demanding age. English being Condrad’s third language after Polish and French also influenced his style in a number of ways. Consequently, he used techniques common to Polish and French such as triple parallelism and rhetorical abstraction to make a point. This aspect, along with that of his era, influenced his exceptionally detailed sentence structure and his use of intricate diction.

Specifically in his novel Heart of Darkness, the style is unique because of the point of view Conrad incorporated. The novel is a story of a story, his “narrator” serves simply as the framework in which the actual narrator, Marlow, tell his story. This feature has a couple of important ramifications. Simply because the core story is being told out loud, the readers have a chance to be a part of Marlow’s mental process; his doubts, opinions, and sensations. Throughout his story, Marlow tries to organize his thoughts and figure out himself what he is saying. Therefore, the prose resembles a speaking voice included with hesitations, repetitions, pauses and other strictly spoken elements of communication.

The undeniable facet of the realistically tragic darkness that is tightly twined throughout the entire novel also assisted in constructing Conrad’s style. He paints terrifying images with sinister and mysterious metaphors using dark diction. He reveals horrifying truths of man’s easily corruptible human nature as he develops the theme throughout the book. The corruption of man’s civility by the untamed darkness of the savage jungle is the core theme and contributes profoundly to the tone of the book.

In contrast to Conrad’s, Proulx’s style used in The Shipping News is a result of the current changing modern age where people are starting to loosen their grip on ridged rules of strict grammar and writing. The most outstanding attribute of Proulx’s style is that subjects are frequently left out, an occasional preposition is forgotten and random single words often serve as sentences. Descriptive paragraphs composed almost entirely of fragments. Curt and crude. Almost all grammar rules broken; untraditional and unconventional. Like a mad scientist experimenting. Unsystematically dripping random chemicals into a test tube. Eccentric. Experimental style hard to grasp but then hard to let go.

The motifs and extended metaphors in this novel help shape the darkly comic style in which it was written. Each chapter’s introductory title is an explanatory excerpt from mostly Ashley’s Book of Knots but also Mariner’s Dictionary and Quipis and Witches Knots. These unusual introductions are used to present a symbolic way into the chapter, assist in carrying the knot theme on with the book, foreshadow upcoming events, and merely draw attention to the reader. The knot theme gives a framework for Proulx to develop her truth revealing, funny-tragic metaphor. The knots, found everywhere in the ropes of life, symbolize human experiences. The shipping theme conveys the human experience in general. This metaphor is further developed by the deliberate style Proulx uses in this novel.

The surrealistic and humorous style of The Shipping News can also be attributed to the omniscient third-person point of view Proulx uses to narrate the story. By choosing this point of view, she has the ability to tell the reader what any given character is feeling at any given moment. The third person view detracts slightly from realism but leaves room for sarcastic remarks and comic exaggerated comparisons about any of the characters. The reader is told things that the characters in the novel aren’t, so irony is free to develop in abundance.

Style is an important tool used by all authors to grasp the reader’s emotions and mold them according the author’s desire. In Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, his exotic, mysterious style pulls the reader into the darkness that creeps from its impenetrable lair, the jungle. In The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx, her comically surrealistic style and her cleverly used motifs bring the reader to the coastal life of her main character, Quolye, and give to the reader a chance to personalize with the knots in his ropes of life. By using style, the authors paint the image of their novel to captivate the reader’s attention sensations.

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