What is the author's style in the short story, Tyres?

The language the author uses to craft the short story is inspired by the narrator’s distinct modes of processing the world around him. This means that because the unnamed protagonist is relaying his account in his own words, the author’s use of language originates from the narrator’s consciousness. The narrator has a particularly complex way of interrupting his environment and making sense of his experiences because of how the war has affected him psychologically and emotionally. Indeed, throughout the short story, the narrator alternates between the past and the present, between romantic and violent imagery. These stylistic mutations are indicative of the narrator’s evasive and avoidant tendencies and his reluctance to own his involvement in Cécile’s death.

One key feature of the narrator's linguistic patterns is his use of ornate, poetic, and lyrical syntax and diction. These stylistic elements are particularly prevalent in the passages where the narrator is describing his protracted relationship with Cécile. When the narrator falls in love with her, his world becomes suddenly beautiful, peaceful, and awe-inducing. His memories of meeting and getting to know Cécile coincide with his memories of the “poppies between the vines, and the white asphodels that came up always (and still do) in the good-for-nothing field at the back, and the poplars on the river glittering like fountains in a wind—so it would have been late spring” (399). Although his village and country are experiencing the upheaval of war, the narrator is overcome by the beauty of dappled branches, glittering waters, and lovely hillsides. These descriptive details enact the ways in which the narrator uses Cécile as an escape from his otherwise tumultuous reality. However, as time passes, this more romantic imagery dissipates from the page and is replaced by violent images of death and destruction. The author therefore uses his linguistic patterns in order to enact and trace the evolution of the narrator’s internal experience.