Elmore Leonard has been called " the free indirect discourse, a third-person narrative technique that gives the illusion of immediate access to a character's thoughts, " is unsurpassed in our time, and among the surest of all time, even if we include Jane Austen, Gustave Flaubert, and Hemingway in the mix ."
22.
Smith s use of free indirect discourse, the close-third-person style that puts the reader at once within and without her characters, means that Autumn, for all its braininess, is never difficult . [ & ] This is a novel that works by accretion, appearing light and playful, surface-dwelling, while all the time enacting profound changes on the reader s heart.
23.
Free indirect discourse can also be described, as a " technique of presenting a character's voice partly mediated by the voice of the author ", or, in the words of the French narrative theorist Gerard Genette, " the narrator takes on the speech of the character, or, if one prefers, the character speaks through the voice of the narrator, and the two instances then are " merged " ."
24.
The year was plainly inscribed . " Regarding " beech ", Drescher argues that it is the husband's misreading of the label, " an example of typographical free indirect discourse, " and is one of the story's many references to the Holocaust, specifically the Buchenwald concentration camp . " Buchenwald " means " beech woods ", and Pnin thinks of " Buchenwald " and " beechwood " ( for cremation ) together.
25.
For an example of this communal voice is in this sentence from the introduction that states, " And he coulda listened to them the way you been listening to us right now . " Rita Mae Brown states that " The different voices are beautifully realized but confusing to read . " As well as the communal voice, Mama Day offers both a 1st person narration and occasionally a free indirect discourse which gives readers direct access to Mama Day's thoughts.
26.
The omniscient narrator, still present when the human cargo surrounds Delano and tells him of their woe ( " all poured out a common tale " ) gives way to indirect discourse ( " The scurvy . . . had swept . . . number . . . " ) from the slaves, and thus " moves us so close to Delano's perspective that we witness the scene as if over his shoulder and hear the'clamorous'crowd as if through his ears ."
27.
Verbs that usually have a future reference, such as " swear ", " promise ", " hope ", " threaten ", " expect " etc ., either take the declarative infinitive ( mostly the future, but less often also the present, aorist or perfect infinitive, even the infinitive with representing a potential optative or indicative ), and in this case indirect discourse is employed, or they are followed by the " to "-infinitive ), as shown below.
