" And after we stood whispering in the underbrush- one last look at the body and a last look round, no dropped keys, lost glasses, everybody got everything?- and then started single file through the woods, I took one glance back through the saplings that leapt to close the path behind me. Though I remember the walk back and the first lonely flakes of snow that came drifting down through the pines, remember piling gratefully into the car and starting down the road like a family on vacation, with Henry driving clench-jawed through the potholes and the rest of us leaning over the seats and talking like children, though I remember only too well the long terrible night that lay ahead and the long terrible days and nights that followed, I have only to glance over my shoulder for all those years to drop away and I see it behind me again, the ravine, rising all green and black through the saplings, a picture that will never leave me." (page 4)
WHOA. Here, we are first introduced to Donna Tartt's writing style. With a mixture of stylistic and rhetorical elements, she creates a compelling passage and passages just like this that are seen throughout the novel. This passage is a wonderful example of her style that is constantly mirrored within other pieces of her book, yet they aren't too overbearing and repetitive.
The very first sentence in the passage has a very mysterious tone. I instantly wanted to know what happened-Was this a planned murder or a prank gone wrong?-but there isn't enough given details. It is inferred that Bunny's death was sad for all of them, however. The students were "whispering in the underbrush" and left single file- something most non-remorseful people don't do. Even though the tone is mysterious, the actions of the students are ones connected with sadness yet also connected with corruptness. They make sure there is no evidence of them being there yet are also upset. This contrast between the tone and what's actually happening creates a mixture of emotions within because I don't exactly know what is going on, yet I have a general idea. Tartt's style of giving her readers just a little taste of the plot keeps them interested because they crave more.
Rhetoric devices help further add to Tartt's style throughout the passage. One huge simile that I thought important was where the students are being compared to a family on vacation; Henry as the father and the rest as children. It is significant because they just murdered their best friend, yet they are being compared to an innocent family riding down the road. Their appearance is nothing like it seems, and the use of simile/irony brings that out. It contributes to the overall style because it follows the pattern of things appearing one way but being a different way.
Climax is used in the passage that coincides with the tone. When describing how this disastrous experience has affected him, the narrator increases the level of severity. At first there is one terrible night that lies ahead. Then it is followed by long terrible days and nights proceeding, that ultimately lead to the narrator admitting that even years later he will often glance over his shoulder and the scene will appear in front of him. This climactic part in the passage adds emotional appeal to the situation, and the tone changes changes to sentimental. I was most affected by this part in the sentence because it is very sad, and I pitied him, even though he had done something evil. Using climax, the reader connects emotionally with the narrator, forging an unforeseen bond and liking for him.
This entire passage consisted of only 2 sentences. Tartt writes with very long sentences, that have many commas and dashes thrown into them. Though her sentences are long, they are complex and have many different ideas. The sentences are parallel in the sense that they have an independent clause put in the middle of them. The way the sentences were structured, I hardly noticed that they we just two long sentences. Commas add an effect of creating a sense of completeness because all of the ideas flow together. If put together wrong, these sentences could be drawn out and boring, but instead her syntax is clear and flowed.
One main aspect that I admire about her style is that Tartt has a habit of being choosy with which details she gives the reader. It frustrates me at times but also keeps me engaged in the book because I constantly want to know more. She gives select details that could be inferred in any way, and at times I was fearful of interpreting the text wrong, because I didn't want to become completely lost in the storyline. In the passage she gives details about the scenery, but not about the students. She tells of the first snow flakes falling from the sky and the green and black ravine, but we don't know everything about the character's reactions. She says that the students stood whispering in the underbrush, but we don't know what they were whispering about. We then learn lots of information about how they searched for lost items and filed through the snowy woods, but we don't' know how they feel. We know that Henry was clench-jawed, but we don't know if it was because of fear or anger or what. We know that they leaned over the seats and talked like children, but we don't know what words were exchanged. It reminds me of putting together a puzzle. When you put a puzzle together, you have to go piece by piece. In the novel, we only get to see the pieces Tartt throws at us. This impacts the story because throughout the entire novel, we're being detectives trying to piece together everything. It makes me want to keep reading, and I hate it when I have to put the book down.
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