Language and style of writing

Style of language

The language of the short story “The Third Dumpster” by Gish Jen is generally easy to follow, although certain sentences may be harder to understand due to their length and complexity:

Meaning that though they had been Americans for fifty years and could no longer belay themselves hand over hand up their apartment stair rail to get to their bedroom, they nonetheless could not go into assisted living because of the food. (ll. 9-11)

The language can also appear fragmented as comments, repetition, and explanations are sometimes inserted in the middle of a sentence: “Their father nodded, a little, grimacing – his brown age spots growing prominent as his real self, it seemed, paled” (ll. 139-141). This is done to draw attention to the line, bring clarifications, or strengthen the message of the text.

The choice of words indicates an informal style of writing. Certain informal expressions and idioms are used, such as “brought home the bacon” (l. 99) or “what would fly” (l. 100). Contractions such as “don’t”, “they’ve”, “that’s”, etc. are present throughout the text. They are used mainly in the dialogue, giving it authenticity and conveying a feeling of familiarity between the characters. Grammatical errors such as missing verbs and conjunctions - “I fine” (l. 138), “How come even you have no job” (l. 119)- or incorrect verb tenses - “You are finally learn how to act!” (l. 27)- are used to suggest the speech pattern frequently encountered among people whose first language is not English. This speech pattern is also used to suggest that the Chinese parents, who make grammatical errors, have not fully l...