The chaplain persisted timorously.One of my favorite authors of all time, Stephen King, once said, "The road to hell is paved with adverbs". Like King, I believe people use adverbs too much in their writing where a simple power verb would have been enough to get the point across. Nevertheless, Heller uses adverbs and some power verbs (I'll give him some credit) to indirectly characterize his characters. In the example above, the way the chaplain speaks emphasizes his self-consciousness. The chaplain has an inferiority complex which is clear when he speaks in a nervous tone. In several other instances, Heller uses words like "suspiciously" and "guardedly" to describe the way Yossarian speaks. This reflects Yossarian's paranoid state of mind. He believes everyone is out to get him; he is very cautious all the time. Heller is the first author I've ever seen use adverbs as a means of characterization.
Until Next Time,
Alysse
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