John Steinbeck's style of writing
... Chapter two takes them to the bunkhouse, and chapter three provides a view of the bunkhouse at dusk. A description of Crooks’ room starts off chapter four and the barn on a sunny Sunday afternoon sets the setting for chapter five. Chapter six, the last chapter, brings you back at the green pool where the story began. They vary in length from only a couple paragraphs to two pages. The descriptions are filled with vivid words, carefully chosen to give you a clear image of the sights, sounds, and actions of the scenes. These descriptions include small details from the some scenes, for example when the lizard was “skittering” through the piles of leaves by the pool and when the cards flew off the table. Despite how minor these details seem, they add the final touches to Steinbeck’s pictures. Despite the descriptive paragraphs that open each chapter, the majority of the story consists of dialogue. It relies on this dialogue for its movement and development. Steinbeck keeps the dialogue simple and natural. Steinbeck’s characters are not highly-educated men. They speak like the uneducated, farm workers that they are. Thus the dialogue has a distinct voice, riddled with all the slang and swearing that seems natural coming from the characters’ mouths. Casual words like “oughta” and “awready” fill the dialogue. The author also often eliminates the “g” from the end of words, like “telling” into “tellin’,” “hiding” into “hidin’,” or “nothing” into “nothin’” the way many people do naturally when they speak. In the Standard American English of academic writing, words like these would seem awkward and out of place. But in the setting of the hot barley fields of California, nothing would seem more natural. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck keeps the tone of the writing neutral. He does not openly try to convince the reader of anything, or never praises one character or condemns another. Unlike many other authors, he never writes what the characters are thinking or feeling, he never lets the reader slip directly into their minds to watch the story f...