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Situational Irony
Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis:
Miller's style and use of figuration relies heavily on sensory imagery and straightforward figurative language, exemplified in the following passage from Chapter 5:
[Achilles' spear] whirled, flashing forward, reversed, then flashed behind. The shaft seemed to flow in his hands, the dark gray point flickered like a snake’s tongue. His feet beat the ground like a dancer, never still.
Note Miller's use of simile, which overshadows most other literary devices in the novel. She utilizes other types of figurative language far less, straying away from heavy irony or satire. In this way, Miller's writing style mirrors that of a historian: while embellishing her prose, she still presents each scene as a straightforward sequence of events.
Miller also moves relatively quickly from important event to important event—as a historian might—giving little time to relatively uneventful stretches of time in Patroclus's life. Patroclus and Achilles age from 14 to 16 in a few sentences; seasons with Chiron pass quickly. Battles, on the other hand, are drawn out in detail.
This writing style is perhaps a side-effect of mythical retelling. In The Iliad, Homer sets out to regale readers with an epic tale but centers the historical details first and foremost. This may be due to the nature of epic poetry as not only a vessel for storytelling, but as a means of documenting history. Oral histories were among the first poems; poems were among the first methods of retaining cultural memory. Miller captures this history/story ambiguity in her own writing.
