Style Mapping

The three excerpts I will be comparing today are from Neil Gaiman's Stardust, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and Cormac McCarthy's No Country For Old Men. The language Gaiman uses in Stardust is not intricate or fancy, but rather plain. The writing is formal, descriptive, yet not eye-catching. A few adjectives could be categorized as elevated language, but as a whole, the passage falls in the middle of the gamut. Some predictable repetition of words occurs, creating neither a harsh, coarse sound, nor a melodious one. Thus, with this indifferent word choice, the passage is denotative; no suggestions are made about positive or negative meanings. Cormac McCarthy, on the other hand, has written various novels in various styles on various ends of the spectrum. Blood Meridian is written in ornate and unique language, and employs the use of several elevated adjectives and profoundly original nouns. It is much more connotative in language than Gaiman's selection, the words are used to portray either a negative image of the harsh effects of the elements of nature, or a positive, charismatic image of a simple country boy. The passage has a slight musicality to it, the words and the images they create are soothing in a way. However, a passage from one of McCarthy's other books, No Country For Old Men, is vastly different. The language is rough and coarse in order to portray the common colloquialisms of southern Texas. Often times, the words used by the narrator are denotative, as most of the opinions are given through character dialogue. In this piece, in contrast to the first two excerpts, the language gives a harsh, southern sound, because it fits the setting and the themes of the novel.