Language

Style of writing

The language employed in “Survivor Syndrome” by Liz Jensen is mainly formal in the narration, with complex and suggestive descriptions that highlight Dimitri’s good sense of observation and indicate that he is well-educated: “Wherever you looked you saw fatigue, listlessness and the chronic evidence of damp: dim eyes, fungal skin eruptions. ‘Sink or swim,’ you heard people muttering as they stalked the saturated earth, their eyes scanning the waterlogged horizon” (p. 244, ll. 31-35). These detailed descriptions also contribute to the realism of the story, as Dimitri is a photographer, and thus, he is supposed to be curious and observant. 

The narrator uses many adjectives and adverbs to describe his surroundings and the people of London. These words often have negative meanings, conveying powerful images and suggesting the sense of misery created by the flood and its disastrous consequences: “drizzling, waterlogged place, full of sodden people” (p. 232, l. 5); “dripping citizens” (p. 243, l. 13); “waterlogged horizon” (p. 244, ll. 34-35), etc. In another example, the adjectives us...