In literature, authors make use of literary devices in an effort to establish not only the intelligence of the characters being created, but their individual voice as an author. Throughout The Running Man by Stephen King, the author makes use of events, tone, mood, and sentence structure to separate the classes in a dystopian society. One main distinction between these classes however, is the language spoken within each class and is made apparent through varying sentence structures. Through this division the internal and external conflict between the two diverse groups is made apparent. While the lower class tends to use foul language and disconnected sentence structure, the upper class, the more highly educated population, uses a larger vocabulary
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One might question the importance of the formality and structure of a piece of literature, however, in the case of The Running Man, the use of formalism contributes to the emphasis of the power within this dystopian government being held by the rich and their neglect for and thus cause of conflict towards the lower classes. With formalism, form and technique used within a piece of writing are emphasized and observed in an effort to alter language for the creation of art (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica). To distinguish the rich, or governmentally favored class, from the poor, King made use of advanced vocabulary, elongated and flowing sentences, parallelism, analogies, and additional sophisticated devices to display a more pretentious and highly educated group as well as to manipulate the thoughts and minds of citizens. For example, as displayed on page 70, King uses words such as shrewd and resourceful in an effort to display the language of the upper class. “Tonight’s first contestant is a shrewd, resourceful man from south of the canal in our own home city… A verified sighting brings you one hundred New Dollars! A sighting which results in a kill results in one thousand New Dollars for you” (King 70). In the case of the lower governmentally disliked class, humor, slang, …show more content…
In using formalism to distinguish between the money and power holding upper class and the lower class, the reader’s attention is drawn to the conflict that divides the classes and drives them to the hatred that separates this dystopian society (Marxism). This connects to other aspects of the novel being the government’s continuous drive for money is the cause of programs such as The Running Man and the conflict between the classes that eventually drives Richards to destroy the government. On page 132, Bradley explains that people in the lower class who cannot afford nose filters die every day from lung cancer. Although this is true, with the government in control, “Asthma goes on the death certificate. But it’s the air” (King 132) in an effort to continue mass production in factories without environmental restraints and to continue to gain money in surplus. This neglect towards the lower class due to greed displays the heart of the conflict between the classes. After distinguishing that the upper class was favored as a result of advanced and sophisticated sentence structure, this thought is continued on through the holding of power by the upper class and their neglect towards the lower class out of a thirst for
One might question the importance of the formality and structure of a piece of literature, however, in the case of The Running Man, the use of formalism contributes to the emphasis of the power within this dystopian government being held by the rich and their neglect for and thus cause of conflict towards the lower classes. With formalism, form and technique used within a piece of writing are emphasized and observed in an effort to alter language for the creation of art (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica). To distinguish the rich, or governmentally favored class, from the poor, King made use of advanced vocabulary, elongated and flowing sentences, parallelism, analogies, and additional sophisticated devices to display a more pretentious and highly educated group as well as to manipulate the thoughts and minds of citizens. For example, as displayed on page 70, King uses words such as shrewd and resourceful in an effort to display the language of the upper class. “Tonight’s first contestant is a shrewd, resourceful man from south of the canal in our own home city… A verified sighting brings you one hundred New Dollars! A sighting which results in a kill results in one thousand New Dollars for you” (King 70). In the case of the lower governmentally disliked class, humor, slang, …show more content…
In using formalism to distinguish between the money and power holding upper class and the lower class, the reader’s attention is drawn to the conflict that divides the classes and drives them to the hatred that separates this dystopian society (Marxism). This connects to other aspects of the novel being the government’s continuous drive for money is the cause of programs such as The Running Man and the conflict between the classes that eventually drives Richards to destroy the government. On page 132, Bradley explains that people in the lower class who cannot afford nose filters die every day from lung cancer. Although this is true, with the government in control, “Asthma goes on the death certificate. But it’s the air” (King 132) in an effort to continue mass production in factories without environmental restraints and to continue to gain money in surplus. This neglect towards the lower class due to greed displays the heart of the conflict between the classes. After distinguishing that the upper class was favored as a result of advanced and sophisticated sentence structure, this thought is continued on through the holding of power by the upper class and their neglect towards the lower class out of a thirst for