A Syntactical Analysis of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury ..., Slides of English

Download A Syntactical Analysis of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury ... and more Slides English in PDF only on Docsity! Aisthesis 1 Volume 12, 2021 Syntax Influences and Effects: A Syntactical Analysis of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, and Skyward by Brandon Sanderson By: Jordan A. G. Jantz Introduction Different grammatical constructions and syntactic choices are one of the primary factors affecting a writer’s unique style. In this paper, I analyze how syntax contributes to the style and discourse of the openers (first thousand words) of three different works: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, and Skyward by Brandon Sanderson. Each of these writers cites the previous writer as an influence on his work. Ultimately, while this influence is evident particularly between Card and Sanderson, each of these three writers uses his syntax to achieve the distinct style and aesthetic of his work, from Bradbury’s lyricism and scene setting to Card’s and Sanderson’s exposition. Authors and Influences Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), author of Fahrenheit 451, had a long and influential writing career (Gre- gersen). Indeed, Orson Scott Card (1951-Present), author of Ender’s Game (“About Orson Scott Card”), cites Bradbury as a stylistic influence on his writing (Card, “Thoughts on Ray Bradbury”). In turn, Card’s writing has influenced many authors, including Brandon Sanderson (1975-Present), who read Card’s writing growing up (“About Brandon”) and who cites Ender’s Game as an influence on his novel Skyward (Sanderson, “Officially Announcing: Skyward”). Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451 In Fahrenheit 451, the first of these three authors, Ray Bradbury, gave his writing a rhythmic, lyrical, and almost poetic effect, matched with long flowing sentences. This style is apparent within the first few sen- tences: It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the sympho- nies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history. (Bradbury 33) Adverbial and Adjectival Constructions One of Bradbury’s most used structures is adverbs. Adverbs’ recursive nature allows Bradbury to create his long sentences. Additionally, the mobility of adverbs and adverbial constructions allows him to place them where they best suit his intended meaning (Tufte 95-96) and to maintain a variety of sentence structures (Black 99). Indeed, Bradbury uses prepositions (both adverbial and adjectival) at the beginning, middle, and end of his sentences. Prepositions can be used for “striking metaphorical and poetic effect” (Tufte 122), as they are in Bradbury’s writing with sentences like “He strode in a swarm of fireflies” (Bradbury 33, emphasis added). Additionally, prepositions contribute to the “movement, progression” (Tufte 119), and rhythm (Tufte 119-122) of Bradbury’s writing as seen most evidently in some of his long sentences: “He walked out of the fire station and along the midnight street toward the subway where the silent air-propelled train slid soundlessly down its lubricated flue in the earth…” (Bradbury 34, emphasis added). Another construction giving Bradbury’s writing a flowing, continuous effect is active participial phrases, both adverbial and adjectival (Black 177): for example (an active adjectival participial phrase), “His inner mind, reaching out to turn the corner for him, had heard the faintest whisper” (Bradbury 35, emphasis added). Parti- cipial phrases also add rich detail to Bradbury’s writing (Black 177). Furthermore, these dependent clauses can give prose “added weight, [and] create … parallel rhythms and stresses … [and] cadence” (Tufte 139), match- Aisthesis 2 Volume 12, 2021 Syntax Influences and Effects ing Bradbury’s rhythmic writing. The “predictable rhythms” (Tufte 140) of dependent clauses also “make them a frequent choice in ceremonial and other formal prose” (Tufte 140). While Bradbury’s writing is not formal in certain senses (it is not written in the style of an academic paper, for example), it is certainly not colloquial. For instance, Bradbury uses some elevated diction—with words like “venomous” (34) and “symphonies” (34)”— and has fairly complex sentence structures. More specifically, active participial phrases (which Bradbury favors), with their -ing verbs, “convey a sense that the action is happening now” (Tufte 68). Bradbury’s use of active participial phrases coupled with his use of -ing adjectives gives his writing a sense of immediacy. As shown in some of the above quotes, Bradbury often uses commas to offset all of these adverbial and adjectival constructions, which adds emphasis to the offset phrase (Tufte 97). Since much of the important in- formation and scene work that Bradbury does is in these prepositional phrases, this emphasis draws the reader’s attention to the important content in his sentences. Verb Types In regards to verbs, Bradbury uses many intransitive verbs, likely because much of his sentences’ actual content is contained within adverbial phrases: for instance, “…the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning” (Bradbury 33, emphasis added). Indeed, this type of sentence (long with a short nucleus) “can help to create a distinctive impact and texture” (Tufte 31), and relatedly, intransitive verbs allow for flexible emphasis and stress (Tufte 16). These two combined facts help Bradbury create the rhythm in the sentences in Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury also commonly uses transitive verbs in Fahrenheit 451: for example, “…the silent air-pro- pelled train … let him out with a great puff of warm air onto the cream-tiled escalator rising to the suburb” (Bradbury 34, emphasis added). Virginia Tufte notes, “Maximum activity often finds expression in the tran- sitive, where the action of the verb crosses over to an object” (18) and says when “an adverb or prepositional phrase occupies the terminal slot” (18) in a sentence, they “receive … a strong share of attention” (18). In other words, transitive verbs give energy to Bradbury’s writing and complement his use of prepositional phrases. Sentence Structure and Whole Sentence Modifiers Bradbury opens Fahrenheit 451 with a string of clefts—also called extraposed sentences (Black 249): “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (Bradbury 33). This sentence structure allows Bradbury to give the second part of the sentences emphasis (De- Carrico 193), which is significantly stronger and more interesting than if he had used typical sentence structure, which would have emphasized the abstract concept of pleasure in the sentences. Throughout the entire opener, Bradbury uses dependent clauses—adverbial, adjectival, and nominal (DeCarrico 148)—often surrounding his main clause with dependent clauses. These dependent clauses frequent- ly hold the important information in the sentence, which he does in the following sentence with the when depen- dent clause nested within the that dependent clause: “He knew that when he returned to the firehouse, he might wink at himself, a minstrel man, burnt-corked in the mirror” (Bradbury 34, emphasis added). These two choices make Bradbury’s writing seem softer or less direct, adding to the ethereal atmosphere and Montag’s spell-like state that Bradbury develops around Montag’s fascination with fire and Montag’s encounter with Clarisse. When Bradbury breaks this structure (often with a short sentence), the sentence stands out, receiving emphasis and serving as necessary stylistic variation to slow the reader’s reading pace. Finally, Bradbury uses coordinating conjunctions, often allowing him to create his long sentences with multiple prepositional phrases like the following: “He walked out of the fire station and along the midnight street…” (Bradbury 34, emphasis added). Tufte notes that conjunctions can give writing a sense of “rhythm or pace” (125), which adds to the rhythm of the prepositional phrases and Bradbury’s overall writing. Orson Scott Card – Ender’s Game Orson Scott Card’s writing is of significant contrast to Bradbury’s. The tone in Ender’s Game is more detached, almost clinical at times, and less lyrical, as is evident within the first few paragraphs, Aisthesis 5 Volume 12, 2021 Syntax Influences and Effects and Card’s writing, give Sanderson’s writing a sense of immediacy (Tufte 68) as in the following example: “I hurried after my father, carrying a lantern to light the rubble-strewn cavern” (Sanderson, Skyward 1, emphasis added). All three of these texts are written in past tense, so the participial phrases add necessary urgency to the stories. Another type of dependent clause that Sanderson uses (like Card) is the adverbial clause. Dependent clauses have a similar effect on Sanderson’s writing as they do on Card’s writing. Dependent clauses are useful “to impart details quickly” (Tufte 140), which Sanderson uses to help worldbuild and establish his narrative: “Stuffed bears were for babies, even if you’d fashioned your own mock power armor for yours out of string and broken ceramics” (Sanderson, Skyward 2, emphasis added). Verb Types Sanderson uses similar verb types to Card, with a similar proportion of intransitive verbs and a higher proportion of transitive verbs, and as in Card’s writing, the transitive verbs help with the exposition, rather than having a Bradbury-like lyricism. Additionally, like Card, Sanderson uses many linking verbs, which can “create an insistence” (Tufte 11). This insistence allows Sanderson to firmly establish his world and narrative, helping the readers suspend their disbelief. Sentence Structure and Whole Sentence Modifiers Like Bradbury, Sanderson uses a cleft early in his opener (in his second sentence): “It was stupid to put yourself in danger like that, my mother always said” (Sanderson, Skyward 1). As it does with Bradbury’s writ- ing, this cleft makes the opener stand out with unique emphasis and sentence structure (DeCarrico 193). Overall, like Card, Sanderson begins most of his sentences with the main clause. While this does give his writing a more direct tone, it also makes the tone feel somewhat simplistic (which the direct tone adds to), and this simple, direct tone is what one would expect from both a child narrator and a child main character. Adding to this “childlike” (DeCarrico 136) narration is Sanderson’s use of shorter breath units (DeCarri- co 136), which is especially important since both the narrator and the main character are a child. In regards to whole sentence modifiers, Sanderson uses vocative modifiers in dialogue—although not as many as Card—which help set an informal tone (Black 238-239), establishing the narrator’s comfortable and familiar relationship with her father. Finally, in addition to the above-mentioned adverbial dependent clauses, Sanderson uses relative claus- es, nominal clauses, and nominal appositives, which, as dependent clauses, are to be expected in novel openers (Tufte 140) and can be used “to impart details quickly” (Tufte 140). Appositives in particular are good for clar- ifying details or adding details to a text (Tufte 191). Sanderson uses this effect to establish aspects of the world he is creating and the narrator’s life. Overall, these dependent clauses have a similar effect to the adverbial clauses by allowing Sanderson to add details that flesh out his narrative as in the following excerpt: “I had even drawn a pin on the left over my heart, like the one he wore—the pin that marked him as a pilot” (Sanderson, Skyward 2, emphasis added). Conclusion Despite their varying uses of syntax and grammatical constructions, Ray Bradbury, Orson Scott Card, and Brandon Sanderson all use syntax to create writing styles that successfully craft and support their narra- tive, bringing their scenes, stories, and characters to life. These authors’ syntactical choices allow them to focus on different elements in their openers, with Bradbury’s focus on scene setting and poetic style and Card’s and Sanderson’s focus on more expositional elements. Overall, this analysis shows that different types of syntactical constructions with their different effects each have a role to play in crafting effective stories and style. Aisthesis 6 Volume 12, 2021 Syntax Influences and Effects Works Cited “About Brandon.” Brandon Sanderson, Dragonsteel Entertainment, www.brandonsanderson.com/about-brandon/. Accessed 29 Apr. 2020. “About Orson Scott Card.” Hatrack River: The Official Web Site of Orson Scott Card, www.hatrack.com/osc/about-more.shtml. Accessed 29 Apr. 2020. Black, Kathleen. Guide for the Advancing Grammarian: An Exploration of English for Writers and Teachers. Kitelko Publishing, 2008. Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. Simon and Schuster/Bookspan, 2001. Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game. Tom Doherty Associates, 1991. ---. “Thoughts on Ray Bradbury.” National Review, 7 June 2012, www.nationalreview.com/2012/06/thoughts-ray-bradbury-orson-scott-card/. DeCarrico, Jeanette S. The Structure of English: Studies in Form and Function for Language Teaching. University of Michigan Press, 2000. Gregersen, Erik. “Ray Bradbury.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 29 Nov. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Ray-Bradbury. Sanderson, Brandon. “Officially Announcing: Skyward.” Brandon Sanderson, Dragonsteel Entertainment, 18 Dec. 2017, www.brandonsanderson.com/officially-announcing-skyward/. ---. Skyward. Penguin Random House, 2018. Tufte, Virginia. Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style. Graphics Press, 2006.