Free English Language Dissertations - The Reason For This Is Self-evident: The Writing Was Aimed At Young Children
The reason for this is self-evident: the writing was aimed at young children whose attention would be better caught by an undemanding linguistic style. Writing for adults, no doubt the authors would have employed more complex structures.
There is, however, a clear difference between the two selections; namely, that Blyton has used more signifiers: the cottage is little, the country is deep, and the story takes place once upon a time. Dahl has not done this; his writing is plain and to the point. In terms of the information conveyed, very little is added by Blyton’s signifiers, however, in terms of the style, there is a difference. Blyton is employing a style common to oral story-tellers which is lyrical, but also slightly patronizing. By adding such details she guides the reader’s imagination along the path she wishes it to take, and although her grammar attempts to place her on the same level as her child reader, the patronizing quality of her authoritative voice separates her from the child reader. Dahl, in comparison, has stuck to the facts, and while his style is just as easy and engaging, it is also more trusting of his reader to ascertain his meaning without pointers. His piece goes on to say:
They were rich men. They were also nasty men. All three of them were about as nasty and mean as any men you could meet.
Dahl is speaking directly to his reader, and the grammatical structure of his sentences with their simple NOUN plus VERB plus NOUN/ADJECTIVE provides him with an authoritative and yet conspiratorial voice. The sentence structure makes a definite statement of fact, while the use of the personal pronoun in the second sentence invites the reader to sympathise with those facts. Dahl could have supplied the same information in a different way, for example: One could not meet men meaner and nastier than they were. Contracting the two sentences into one concise sentence also spoils the attractive staccato rhythm of the original, which through repetition served to underline the given facts without being redundant. This transformation, however, while conveying the same content, nevertheless changes the style, making it both more uncertain and formal, and less authoritative. A similar process can be tried on Blyton’s language. For example:
Then they looked out of the window. It looked on to a dark, thick wood, whose trees waved in the wind, not far from the bottom of the garden.
Unlike Dahl, Blyton’s statements of fact include her descriptors which guide the reader, almost like a person using sign language to augment their speech. It lends a patronizing air to the authoritative voice she shares with Dahl. The same information could have been conveyed thus: Then they looked out of the window. There was a deep forest not far beyond the garden, whose trees waved in the wind.
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