A Time to Kill, a legal drama consisting of social criticisms and inner conflicts was written by current Mississippian and former law practicing John Grisham. Since his novel is such an extraordinary literary work one might expect Grishams style to be wordy or heavy. Even though A Time to Kill is a lengthy novel, Grisham does a good job of turning pages by captivating the readers interest. Astonishing is Grishams power to weave the case which is presented in his novel into the mind and soul of the reader. This power, which is enriched by Grishams tremendous grasp over diction and figures of speech, is amazingly refreshing. Throughout his novel, Grisham uses phrases and clauses as well as many expanded simple sentences, which have a tendency to jolt inexperienced students who analyze his work. Although many sentences in the novel were written in expanded simple form, complex, compound and compound-complex sentences appear often as well. The length of sentences in Grishams novel varies. Jake said nothing and Jake had practiced this positive, everythings-wonderful, Im-in-control look through many trials and many surprises, but with the statutory rape the positive and confident and certain look was immediately replaced by a sickly, pale, pained expression that was being scrutinized by at least half of those in the jury box are just two examples of Grishams varied sentence length in A Time to Kill.
The Essay on Sentence – Time
In ancient Greece, Plato and Aristotle agreed that the past is eternal. Aristotle claimed that time had no beginning because, for any time, we always can imagine an earlier time. Imagine, the earliest past you have and by extension imagine all the people in history doing this. Be it as it may before mankind even. Isaac Newton believed future time is in! nite and that, although God created the ...
Just as sentence length ranges from short to long, lengths of paragraphs do as well. Diction and figures of speech, tools with which John Grisham works extremely well are evident in his novel. As Grisham describes the detestable district attorney, his brilliance in diction shines to his readers: Buckley stood on the front steps of the courthouse and waved copies of the indictments. He preached, lectured, moralized, praised the grand jury, sermonized against crime and vigilantes, and condemned Carl Lee Hailey. Bring on the trial. Put the jury in the box.
He guaranteed a conviction. He guaranteed a death penalty. He was obnoxious, offensive, arrogant, self-righteous. He was himself. Vintage Buckley. Also in the novel, Grisham uses figures of speech, some familiar and some not so common, to tighten his hold on the reader. Examples of Grishams intelligent placement of figures of speech are: I win, bubba, Kiss my ass , Listen Mr.
Big Shot , Damn right and Cheap shot. In the controversial novel A Time to Kill, author John Grisham succeeds in grabbing a firm hold of his audience as well as their interest and souls.
