Style Mapping

In Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, there is a regal, picturesque melody to the diction of this excerpt. McCarthy describes the dark as falling "like a thunderclap" and the moving weeds as "gnashing," which effectively engage the reader's sense of sight, sound, and even touch. Neil Gaiman's Stardust  gives a more straightforward perspective on nature by peacefully describing a landscape with unextravagant language while still creating a sweet-sounding atmosphere in the reader's mind. The houses pictured in this excerpt are shown as "square and old, built of grey stone, with dark slate roofs and high chimneys." This word choice paints a vivid picture in the reader's mind using fairly common language. Even more casually written is Jack Kerouac's On The Road, which incorporates a stream of consciousness that mirrors the complex workings of the narrators mind using words that are far less complicated. The flowing, jazzy language including the description of a break-up as a "miserably weary splitup" begs to be read aloud because its sounds are so pleasing to the ear.