Help With Style Analysis

Question

So I'm supposed to write a humongously long 'informative' paper for my English class. For part of it, I have to do an analysis of these books I read (all by the same author) and show how those books reflect the style of the author. My author is Sherman Alexie. I'm completely confused when it comes to this style analysis stuff. The assignment sheet suggests looking at diction, tone, subject matter, use of dialogue, attitudes and emotions, but that just confuses me even more. If anyone can help me at all with this (i.e.- what is Alexie's style?; how do I go about analyzing style?; what do all those crazy 'style' words mean?; anything), it would all be greatly appreciated. Thanks a bunch!

Nestor · Accepted Answer

Diction: The author's choice of words. Alexie is a Native American, and he uses Native American and Indian reservation slang throughout his work. What does this say about his work?

Tone: Alexie's tone is the attitude he expresses towards his subject matter. Look at the events in the narratives to discover the tone--are the events positive, negative, or somewhere in between? What does Alexie think about the people he writes about?

Subject Matter: Authors write about people. What kind of people does Alexie describe? What are their lives like?

Use of Dialogue: How do the characters communicate with each other? Is it direct? Or do they want to say one thing but end up saying another? Does the dialogue have anything to do with what Alexie wants to say as a writer?

If you keep in mind that you're writing a paper about the work of Sherman Alexie. Think about what you've read and try to discover a few themes that most of his works share. Once you understand and can describe his mission as a writer, try to find some sort of correllation between what Alexie writes about and how he writes about it. When you figure that out, you've done a style analysis.

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