hulit1-8, Exercise 2: The voice of Fatelessness

Model answer (check the details):

Distinctive voice: the novel is told by a boy who describes what he sees in a flat, observing tone, with little sentiment, anger or heroism. Events are reported as they are experienced, and the narrator often tries to find them normal or understandable.

Why plainness suits the subject: a plain style avoids the consoling patterns (heroes, redemption, clear moral lessons) that can make terrible events easier to bear and so falsify them. It makes the reader do the moral work and shows how a person adapts to an unimaginable world. The distance can be more disturbing than overt emotion.

A note of caution: describe the book's effect on the reader as your own response, and check critics and the author's essays for what he said he intended.