McCarthy’s Diction: By Melany Gianiotis

All authors have their own kind of diction. In the excerpt from Cormac McCarthy’s, Child of God, the author makes diction which is both clever and simple. An example is “I seen him shoot a spider out of a web in the top of a big red oak one time and we was far from the tree as from here to the road yonder.” This shows that he’s clever but simple so the readers visualize it. Another example is “When I done that his old head jerked back and his eyes went kindly funny and I said: well, well, how sweet it is.” He makes the reader think about what he’s saying which also makes it clever and keeps what he says simple. Finally, an example is “I thought to myself: well he’s trying to save his ape a whipping is what he’s trying to do.” McCarthy’s making this clever too because he’s showing the readers he’s thinking clever. He keeps it simple by stating something that is obvious.