Chapter six: Mind Style

The fictional world is what is apprehended, whereas our present concern is with how that world is
apprehended or conceptualized. Any conceptualization of a world presupposes two things:

a- a world to refer to

b- a mind through which that world is reflected

We can recognize a clear difference in these two examples:

[1] It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking 13. [George Orwell. 1984]

[2] Bob Cowley's outstretched talons gripped the black deep-sounding chords. [James Joyce, Ulysses]

Sentence [2] is a case of what is referred to by Fowler's term 'Mind Style'. Mind style is a realization of
narrative point of view. It can be associated with quite local stylistic effects, for example in the
description of a character or a landscape. Although we shall mainly e concerned with cumulative
tendencies of stylistic choice, even a single sentence, such as [2], might be said to encapsulate a mind
style.

The need to separate fictional world from mind style becomes more obvious to the extent that a
writer's way of representing the world deviates from a commonsense of reality. Joyce's sentence [2] is
linguistically foregrounded: the collocation 'Cowley's … talon', 'gripped the … chords' and 'black …
chords' violate the selection restrictions requiring that talon does not go with a human possessor, that
grip does not have an abstract object, and that black does not accompany an abstract noun. Joyce
makes a reader rearrange standard linguistic categories through metaphorical interpretation. But even
in apparently normal pieces of writing, the writer slants us towards a particular 'mental set': there is no
kind of writing that can be regarded as perfectly neutral and objective.

It is appropriate to begin the examination of mind with the question of semantic choice.

6.1 How linguistic choices affect mind style:

One important aspect of mind style is that of participant relations in the clause. It is at this level that
semantic matters like agency and responsibility are indicated. Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man is
an example of the effect of changes in participant relations, ‘the left foot comes down with firm even
pressure on the clutch pedal’. Other stylistic possibilities of this sentence are: 1- he comes down with
his left foot with firm even pressure. 2- The left foot presses down with firm even pressure; where the
action appears to be performed by George or his foot, automatically or non-automatically, consciously
or unconsciously. So in 1 above, there is the human actor, whereas in 3- the left foot presses itself
down with firm even pressure, the foot itself produces the action. In these examples, variation occurs
within the overall structure of a transitive clause as opposed to an intransitive or a linking clause. This
differentiation is possible because of the option of coding the initiator of the action and the actor as if
they were identical or as if they were separate.

Thus, Isherwood’s use of a bodily part instead of a person as an actor in a clause is a fairly common
device for suggesting that the part of the body involved acts of its own accord. The advantage of
employing a bodily part instead of the person himself is to play down the blame attributed to a
character for his actions. For instance, in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, she screamed then, and
Lennie’s other hand closed over her mouth and nose, it is clear that Lennie is beginning to smother
Curley’s wife but what seems to relieve Lennie of the blame for his action is that his hand is the actor
in the second clause, the thing which diminishes Lennie’s responsibility for his action.

Thus there are different choices at the level of participant relations leading to varying
conceptualizations of the same event. Conceptual variation can be controlled by other syntactic or
semantic means. The term mind style is particularly appropriate where the choices made are
consistent through the text. Such a consistent choice of a particular stylistic variable might be on the
part of the novelist, narrator or character.

6.2 A comparison of Three Normal mind styles:

There are many ways through which a writer reveals his view of the mock reality he is describing,
besides manipulating participant relations within the clause. The best example of doing so is by
comparing descriptions by different writers of the same scene or set of events or by comparing 3
descriptions of characters from near the beginnings of novels or stories.

Steinbeck’s description of Tom Joad from The Grapes of Wrath, Joyce’s description of Lenehan at the
beginning of Two Gallants and Henry James’ description of Mr Grant-Jackson in The Birthplace are all
relatively normal, in the sense that they require the reader to adopt a view of things which isn’t
noticeably at variance with the view we take of the real world. Of the three, Steinbeck’s description
seems to be the most neutral, the most objective of all. But as there is no absolute realism, so there is
no complete photographic objectivity in the conceptualization of a fictional world. His description is
neither external nor photographic.

Stenibeck’s description shows a preference for simple lexical and syntactic structure. The sentences
are short and exhibit a repeated use of the linking x be y structure. There is a marked absence of
morphological complexity, abstract nouns, adjectives and verbs of perception. These positive and
negative aspects all contribute to the feeling that we are given a simple, objective, external and factual
description.

Joyce’s description is more active that Steinbeck’s. Lenehan’s outward appearance is less static that
Tom Joad’s. There is preference for verbs of movement. Nouns referring to bodily parts are modified
by adjectives expressing attitudes and states of mind. The nouns and adjectives are abstract and refer
to emotional states and feelings rather than things.

As for Henry James’ description, it is 76 words long. In terms of clause structure it is fairly simple, its
complexity arising from the huge noun phrases used. Lexically, the sentences have abstract nouns and
adjectives. We learn nothing of Jackson’s appearance but a great deal about his character, attitude and
standing in the world.

By moving from Steinbeck through Joyce to James, we have moved from a view of the world where
physical detail is uppermost to one where such detail is related in a complex way to emotion and
attitude and finally to a view of the world where physical description is substituted by exactness of
social relations and qualities of character.
6.3 Some More Unusual Mind Styles:

There are more marked kinds of Mind Style which make use of semantic categories which we use for
interpreting the world. First, we see some signs of this tendency in James’ description of Mr. Grant-
Jackson, where the adjectives seem to be applied to social behavior and yet have physical implications.
James also suggested something of the physical appearance and behavior of man. There are grounds
for saying that he has brought about a degree of fusion between the normally separate concepts of
‘concrete’ and ‘abstract’.

Second, there are three more examples about unusual mind styles. In all these 3 examples, there is a
more obvious and definitive rearrangement of semantic categories. The first example is Hardy in The
Return of the Native. It is an evident deviation from a commonsense view of things, which is a strong
current in literary expression that has been given a name ‘the pathetic fallacy’. It is the attribution of
human characteristics to inanimate nature, which suggests the animation or the personhood of natural
phenomena. The least specific form of pathetic fallacy is manifested in the use of inanimate nouns as
actors as implied in the verbs of motion. More specific are expressions which attribute motive and
feeling to inanimate nature. The extract gives a picture of nature animated by movement, motive,
awareness while man is a potential onlooker effaced from the scene. It is as if our literal sense of the
division between animate man and inanimate nature has been eliminated. On the one hand, this
powerful description of Hardy accounts for the oneness of man and his environment and on the other
hand, it suggests that man can have no share in it.

The second example is from William Faulkner’s short story The Bear. It involves merging two parallel
boundaries. Faulkner assumes that beings can’t be neatly divided into beasts and humans. On the
contrary, there are some beings that could belong to either set. Hence, the class of beings who were
taintless and incorruptible includes a man, a beast and an in-between. Giving beats proper names and
referring to them by he, him, etc increases the parallel further. In Faulkner’s world, animals and men
are thus portrayed not as being distinct but as class-related. This way of dividing up the cosmos is at
odds with our stereotyped categories of our language.

The third and more extreme example is John Cowper’s A Glastonbury Romance. Powys describes a
world in which humans and divine beings appear to exist on the same place. The abstract lexicon and
syntactic structure indicate spatial precision. The reader is left with the feeling that something has
been precisely defined, without knowing exactly what it is. This example is a depiction of the world in a
way that is eccentric.

6.4 Very unusual mind style:

The very unusual mind style is a kind of extreme deviation from normal acceptable view of things. The
very unusual mind style can be found in some characters of the fiction. The very unusual mind style of
a character is easily recognized as it can appear in the form of a character fault or a character's limited
abilities and of course it appears clearly when comparing the very unusual mind style with the normal
mind style. Faulkner's Benjy in The Sound and the Fury is a good example of the very unusual mind
style.
Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting. They were coming
toward where the flag was and I went along the fence. Luster was hunting in the grass by the flower
tree. They took the flag out, and they were hitting. Then they put the flag back and they went to the
table, and he hit and the other hit. Then they went on, and I went along the fence. Luster came away
from the flower tree and we went along the fence and they stopped and we stopped and I looked
through the fence while Luster was hunting in the grass.

"Here, caddie." He hit. They went away across the pasture. I held to the fence and watched them
going away.

"Listen at you, now." Luster said. "Aint you something, thirty three years old, going on that way.
After I done went all the way to town to buy you that cake. Hush up that moaning. Aint you going to
help me find that quarter so I can go to the show tonight."

They were hitting little, across the pasture. I went back along the fence to where the flag was. It
flapped on the bright grass and the trees.

"Come on." Luster said. "We done looked there. They aint no more coming right now. Les go down
to the branch and find that quarter before them niggers finds it."

It was red, flapping on the pasture. Then there was a bird slanting and tilting on it. Luster threw. The
flag flapped on the bright grass and the trees. I held to the fence.

Obviously, it is not an easy job to understand this extract due to several reasons. Benjy is using
language in an extremely deviate way. We face difficulty in understanding what Benjy is talking about.
Benjy is watching a game of golf, but this is not immediately observed from his description of what he
sees because he is mentally challenged. This very unusual mind style is evident through Benjy's deviant
use of language. He uses exceedingly simple vocabulary and syntax. In terms of lexis, he uses
monosyllabic concrete words. His lexis is limited, that is why he uses his vocabulary repeatedly over
and over as "fence (8 times), flag (5), hit (5), and go (8)". In terms of structure, he uses short sentences.
The average sentence length is ten words long. His sentences are much like children's writing. Also, he
uses transitive verbs as intransitive, for instance "hit" occurred five times without an object.
Additionally, he uses adjectives as adverbs as in "they were hitting little across the pasture." some
oddities in Benjy’s use of pronouns, and generally in the way in which his narrative fails to distinguish
explicitly between old and new information.

I believe that the very unusual deviation from normal mind styles might not be fit to be applied to,
say, a whole novel; perhaps it can work out quite well with only a character or some characters in the
fiction because readers can accept to see something wrong (extreme deviation) with the characters,
such as weaknesses or very different view of things.