Language

Style of writing

The excerpt from the novel How to get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid is written in a conversational style. There are several common words and phrases that contribute to the realistic feel of the story. However, there are also more advanced words, and the sentences are often long and elaborate: 

The man’s salary is twice yours, and his tips several times greater, for although your work is more strenuous, a man on a motorcycle is immediately perceived as a higher-end proposition than a boy on a bicycle. Unfair, possibly, but you at least do not have to pay monthly installments to a viciously scarred and dangerously unforgiving moneylender for your conveyance. (p. 154, ll. 4-7).

The phrases “strenuous”, “viciously scarred”, and “higher-end proposition” are less frequently used. The sentence structure is also complex. This suggests that the narrative voice belongs to an older and more experience version of the teenage narrator. 

The narrator sometimes uses humor to make a point. For instance, this happens when describing the aftermath of the pretty girl leaving: “You are distraught. You are the sort of man who discovers love through his penis.” (p. 160, ll. 24-...