• Heller uses a casual type of diction when the soldiers themselves are talking. He refers to William Shakespeare as “Bill Shakespeare”, and uses many similes to assist the plot flow. This lends to the somewhat playful tone of Yossarian and his friends, as they keep their youthful mischievousness alive in the havoc they wreak upon their superiors and the hospital.
• Throughout the book, Heller uses a serious tone to address the subject of war. He uses various descriptions to illustrate an image of the men, all while maintaining his same tone. His use of adjectives and imagery assists in the character development of each character. With this character development comes a deeper, more enticing storyline that is entertaining to follow.
• Heller uses a high and formal diction when he is narrating, but tends to use a more colloquial, low diction in the soldiers' dialogue to demonstrate the level of formality and jargon that is often used in such militaristic books. The combination of words like “fluorescent” and “sumptuous” while using words such as "muggy" and "goldarned" shows just this. This illustrates a serious tone, while keeping a playful backdrop for the high diction Heller uses while narrating.
In this post, you have given a pretty solid description of the format of diction in all of Joseph Heller's novel. I noticed the transitions from formal to informal diction too. I feel that Heller used that contrast to strengthen the story. The word choice, grammar, etc, help differentiate Yossarian's friends from the other characters in the storyline.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I agree that this technique of switching up the diction pattern between soldiers and other characters helped keep the novel very interesting and an easy read for me. I think we share the same opinion that without the necessary dips in formality of diction in the book, it would have been much more difficult to read and comprehend.