Филологические науки/2. Риторика и стилистика

К.филол.н. Афанасьева В.В.

Калужский государственный университет, Россия

When graphical expressive means do not play second fiddle

Among different levels of expressive means and stylistic devices the graphical level receives its due attention, which is generally not much because in stylistic analysis of emotive prose we tend to look for expressiveness and emotiveness at the lexical and syntactical levels. Still, the notion of style, which is predominant for stylistics, invariably leads to the unique style of a writer. So, the unique style means individual vision of the language and originality in using language elements. Let us turn to a famous short story by J.D. Salinger “For Esme – with Love and Squalor” for analyzing the stylistic devices and expressive means that help to decode the writer’s message.

Describing the tragedy of war and the tragedy of loneliness through short and matter-of-fact glimpses of the sergeant’s (the story-teller’s) life, this story by Salinger can seem somewhat dry and laconic at first sight. The fact is, that is not so, because the emotional impact it produces on the reader is deep and lasting.

Besides the original composition of the story, several aspects of the language usage should be dwelled upon before we turn to the role of graphical expressive means. For example, the choice of words deserves attention, especially in dialogues – it sharpens the contrast between the story-teller and his army friend on the one hand, and brings him closer to Esme, a girl of title, on the other hand.

His friend Clay:

*“Ya writing letters?” he asked X. “It’s spooky in here, for Chrissake”.

* “Jesus”’ he said, with spectator’s enthusiasm, “you oughta see your goddam hands. Boy, have you got the shakes. Ya know that?”

The story-teller:

* “You were not insane. You were simply doing your duty. You killed that pussycat in as manly in a way as anybody could’ve under the circumstances.”

Esme:

* “Usually I’m not terribly gregarious” she said…

* “He had terribly penetrating eyes, for a man who was intransically kind”

Speech portrayals of the characters reveal a strong tendency for Standard English as far as the story-teller is concerned and a shade of bookishness in Esme’s speech. Her English is extremely good for a teenager. Her being a bit too personal, the things she said and the way she said them make a strong impression on the story-teller during the conversation, as he admits having “a mixed feeling of regret and confusion” when time comes to say goodbye.

On the lexical level, the use of simile brings out a bright and quite unexpected image, for no one would think to compare a wounded soldier with a Christmas tree: “He ached from head to foot, all zones of pain seemingly interdependent. He was rather like a Christmas tree whose lights, wired in series, must all go out if even one bulb is defective”.

On the syntactical level, parenthetic sentences, containing some details, are another element that attributes to the story getting very “personal”:

*“She is fifty-eight. (As she’d be the first to admit.)”

* “Abruptly, with nothing special in mind, I came away from the window and put on my raincoat, cashmere muffler, galoshes, woolen gloves, and overseas cap ( the last of which, I’m still told, I wore at an angle all my own – slightly down over both ears).

Finally, we come to the effect and the role of graphical expressive means in the story. It’s common knowledge that they are used in emotive prose for logical and emotional intensification of the utterance. It is characteristic of Salinger to italicize separate syllables, and the tendency is preserved in this story, too. Besides that, many words are written in italics. The situations are the following:

* “She went on to say that she wanted all her children to absorb the meaning of the words they sang, not just mouth them, like silly-billy parrots.”

* “Well, most of the Americans I’ve seen act like animals.”

* “I said she was right, that I had been feeling lonely, and that I was very glad she’d come over.”

* “I nodded and said her father had probably taken the long view, while I was taking the short (whatever that meant).”

* “I told her that I’d never written a story for anybody, but that seemed the exactly right time to get down to it.”

* “I saw you at the hospital. You looked like a goddam corpse.”

In most cases the stress can be considered logical, but as for the last example, emotional connotation is very strong.

By far the most interesting of the graphical means used in the story is hyphenation. It is found twice but the usage is foregrounded because it is connected with the most moving moments. First, in the dialogue by Esme: “He misses our father very much. He was s-l-a-i-n in North Africa.” It not only shows the peculiar manner of pronunciation of a word, which is a literary equivalent of “kill”, but becomes the emotional focus of the utterance. The last words of Esme before she left the room were: “I hope you return from the war with all your faculties intact”. They acquire the greatest significance in the story as, though the wounds are not described directly, we understand that it’s unbearable to look at the story-teller:

* “No kidding, hey, I goddam near fainted when I saw you at the hospital.”

* “Did you know the side of your face is jumping all over the place?”

* “But he was a young man who had not come through the war with all his faculties intact…”.

So, the finishing lines of the story repeat Esme’s wish, and the word faculties gains symbolic value as it begins as a whole word, and then “breaks into pieces”, that is, into letters: “You take a really sleepy man, Esme, and he always stands a chance of again becoming a man with all his fac – with all his f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s intact.” Here, hyphenation is the best means of reflecting physical disorder, and no other device could be better to show the condition the character was in. The word becomes the logical and emotional focus of the utterance.

It can be suggested that graphical means create their own dominant apart from the possible lexical and grammatical dominants that can be found in the text. The fact that the girl’s present, being a sign of human affection, conquered the darkness and hopelessness that surrounded the story-teller and became his anodyne for pain, contributes to the philosophic contents of the story. Still, different expressive means, especially graphical, play their role in foregrounding important elements and adding to the emotive significance of the story. It may be said that the last sentence, quoted above, contains the emotional climax of the story.

Literature:

1. Galperin I.R. Stylistics. Moscow: Higher school, 1977.