Nostromo Writing Style

Whiplash-y

As we discuss in the "Genre" section, the narration likes to switch back and forth a bunch between different characters and locations, which makes the style pretty chaotic; you will be suddenly jerked out of one character's mind and pulled into another, often without any kind of page break or other indicator that you're running with a new dog (narratively speaking).

In the "Genre" section we check out an example of how the narration does this kind of thing with characters in the same space, but it also happens with characters in different physical locations. So you, the reader, are in for a wild ride: whooshing in and out of consciousnesses and in and out of geographical locations.

Take the moments directly after Don Pepe and Father Roman are visited by a messenger from Pedrito Montero. After getting these men's reactions to the visit, the narrative switches locations to see what the messenger got up to after he departed:

Father Roman expressed in a few words his thankfulness at hearing of the Señor Administrador's safety. The hour of oration had gone by in the silvery ringing of a bell in the little belfry. The belt of forest closing the entrance of the valley stood like a screen between the low sun and the street of the village. At the other end of the rocky gorge, between the walls of basalt and granite, a forest-clad mountain, hiding all the range from the San Tomé dwellers, rose steeply, lighted up and leafy to the very top. […] Before the casa of the alcalde, the foremen of the night-shift, already assembled to lead their men, squatted on the ground in a circle of leather skull-caps, and, bowing their bronze backs, were passing round the gourd of maté. The mozo from the town, having fastened his horse to a wooden post before the door, was telling them the news of Sulaco as the blackened gourd of the decoction passed from hand to hand. (III.6.7-8)

Here, we actually switch locations mid-paragraph, zooming from Don Pepe's camp across the gorge to where the messenger is hanging out outside of the alcalde's house. We're able to follow what's happening, of course, but it seems pretty whiplash-y to us. Each copy of Nostromo should come complete with a roller-coaster harness.