Authorial Techniques

In ‘Of Mice and Men’

What are authorial techniques?

• Characterisation• Style• Setting• Imagery• Narrative Techniques• Allusions (an incidental mention of something,

either directly or by implication)

Characterisation

• Refers to the way the writer creates a character.• Rounded or flat characters

– Rounded characters develop over the novel. Flat characters stay the same, but the author chooses to do this on purpose; perhaps making a statement on the time the novel was set (e.g. Carlson)

• Telling or showing – Telling “There was a stillness about Ralph that marked him

out.”– Showing “His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without

silliness. Out of his face stared two light blue eyes, frustrated now, and turning, or ready to turn, to anger.” (This description shows the character’s volatile nature.)

Style• How would you describe the vocabulary used?

– Abstract or concrete?– Educated or colloquial?– Slang or technical?– Contemporary or archaic?

• Is the vocabulary emotive? Does it have positive or negative connotations?

– The stable buck went on dreamily, “I remember when I was a little kid on my old man’s chicken ranch. Had two brothers. They was always near me, always there. Used to sleep right in the same room, right in the same bed – all three. Had a strawberry patch. Had an alfalfa patch. Used to turn the chickens out in the alfalfa on a sunny morning. My brothers’d set on a fence rail an’ watch ‘em – white chickens they was.”

• Is repetition used? Why? (Rabbits?)• Do some characters use a different kind of vocabulary? What

does this show about them? (Lennie?)

Setting

• Time, place, social climate• Time – period of time in which the text is set. When

discussing the setting of a text, it is also important to consider the amount of time the text covers (time span).

• Place – physical location in which the events of the text take place. Extended written texts (novels) tend to have one major setting in place and a number of minor settings (Weeds, meeting place at the river).

• Social climate – State of society, attitudes, beliefs and feelings within that society, how these directly or indirectly affect the world of this text.

Imagery

• Imagery is when an author ‘paints a picture using words’.• Imagery give a piece of writing interest, variety and a

deeper level of meaning.• Similes, metaphors and personification are common

techniques used to produce imagery.– “A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside

bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool. On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees – willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter’s flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool (…)”

Narrative Techniques• First-person narration: The narrator is “I” and speaks directly to the reader

about their experiences. Information shared in the book can only come from experience or hearsay. Effect: Brings the reader closer to the experiences of the narrator. We are reading a personal account and can understand how that person thinks/feels/acts and why.

• Third-person narration: This is where the characters are referred to as “he”, “she”, or “they” – using the third-person pronoun. Third-person tells the story of what everyone is doing but we do not allowed to know what the characters are thinking, only what they say and do. Effect: We know what is happening in the lives of all the characters. We are able to be everywhere and see a great deal. With omniscient third-person narration, the author will cleverly choose to reveal certain information at a particular time, for greater impact, and we are allowed to understand the thoughts of various characters and to follow the progress and development.

Allusions

• Are an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication.

• Such as Curley’s hand being kept soft with Vaseline – Vaseline is a brand name for petroleum jelly; a greasy, jelly-like substance made from petroleum. Among its other uses, Vaseline is often used as a lubricant (softener) for the skin. The mention of Curley using Vaseline alluded to things of a sexual nature.