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Text effects of linking, listing and nesting
Task C - Our analysis
Other things being equal, putting material in a main clause makes it
more prominent than if it is put in a nested clause. So in this respect
the prominence of the two propositions is reversed in the above two sentences.
That said, other factors affect prominence too. In particular, there is
a tendency for important information to be placed towards the ends of
clauses, sentences and larger structures like paragraphs. This is usually
called the principle of end-weighting. This means that 'Lennie reached
for it' is end-weighted in both of the sentences.
The first sentence ('Curley's fist was swinging, when Lennie reached
for it.') is a sentence that actually occurs in Steinbeck's Of Mice and
Men. You will remember that we met the character Lennie in Task A. In
the novel, Lennie, a man who is like a child but also immensely strong,
commits a mounting series of transgressions which are not really his fault.
Here, the character called Curley picks a fight with Lennie to demonstrate
to the other men on the ranch what a good boxer he is. Lennie is afraid,
and when Curley attacks him he grabs Curley's fist and hangs on, accidentally
crushing it with his enormous strength, and ending Curley's boxing career.
We can now see more easily why the sentence is structured as it is. 'Lennie
reached for it' is end-weighted because it is the important new piece
of information - the situation in the fight is about to change. So far
Curley has hit Lennie and Lennie has not responded. Now he does. But at
the same time Lennie's action is coded as less prominent than Curley's
through its placement in the nested clause. This structuring thus helps
to reduce the salience of Lennie's action, and his culpability for what
happens.
There are other important factors which reduce Lennie's culpability.
We have already pointed out that Curley is the aggressor, not Lennie.
And it is also important to notice the sequencing of the clauses in this
respect. Other things being equal, we expect the sequence in which actions
are presented to us in texts to correspond with the sequence of actions
in the world of the fiction. So the sequencing here underlines what readers
already know in more general terms - namely that, even though he is the
one who is injured, Curley attacks Lennie, not the other way round, and
so is himself at fault for what happens to him.
Towards the end of the novel, Lennie accidentally kills Curley's wife,
and Curley, who already bears a significant grudge, leads a lynch mob
who will execute him if they find him. To prevent Lennie dying in terror
at the hands of the lynch mob, his friend George, who knows he is not
culpable, sits behind Lennie, who is looking out across the Salinas valley,
and tells him about the dream farm that they are going to own. Then, when
he is certain Lennie is happy, George shoots his friend in the back of
the head. Lennie is certain to be killed, and George ensures he is killed
in the most humane way possible in the circumstances.
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