Common Literary Techniques in Tim Winton's 'The Turning'

Common techniques in Winton’s The Turning.

Most of these examples are taken from ‘Aquifer’.

Direct, concrete images: ‘In the afternoon the blue bush plain was hazy with smoke and the dust churned up with bulldozers.’

While these descriptions are simple and clear ways of describing the real world, Winton often highlights aspects that explore and reveal key aspects of the ideas or characters he is exploring. For example, the ‘hazy’ and ‘churned up’ elements in this description highlight 2 things: 1) the confused and often conflicting feelings of the narrator as he reflects back on a time of emotional and hormonal turmoil (growing up); 2) the murky and muddled interaction between past and present.  There is a tension or irony here in that the descriptions seem so straightforward and clear that the memories are certain, solid, can’t be argued with, which is true.  And yet how one grapples with these memories, how one mixes them/reconciles them with the present is less clear as shown by his colloquial observation that the ‘Life’ and the past does not move on but ‘Moves in, more like it.’

Colloquial expression: ‘the old man…’ (p.39) ‘Great evening strollers, the locals.’ (p.39)  Winton’s writing mimics the ordinary speech of the time and the people in clear ways.  He reflects their idioms (old man) and their rhythms of speech (notice the way the speaker comments of the behaviours of ‘the locals’, showing the way people would have spoken about one another by describing the action first then putting the explanation at the end – ‘the locals’.

The colloquial expression and writing style is crucial to Winton’s style as he is representing ordinary people grappling with ordinary griefs, struggles, battles, losses etc.  This means that as we read we feel as though we are ‘with’ the people, living with them in their voices, their confusion, their hopes and despair.

Varied sentence structure: in particular short sentences, sometimes fragments, usually mimicking speech, mixed in with longer undulating sentences.  ‘The battler’s blocks.’ (p.38). ‘We were new.  It was all new.’ (p.39)  ‘I went home and said nothing.’ (p.46 – this is actually a paragraph on its own to stress its importance.)

This is, of course, not the only sentence structure he uses by a long way.  He uses a very consistent sentence structure in ‘Aquifer’ on p.38 ‘The men went to work…’  This paragraph deliberately maintains a consistent sentence structure to show the routine monotony of life in the ‘new’ suburbs.

Quotidian (ordinary, daily life) metaphors: ‘The bush rolled and twisted like an unmade bed.’ (p.38)  ‘The easterly wind was no longer chalky.’ (p.39)

The ordinary, recognisable descriptions, like the colloquial language, make the world familiar and accessible.
'verisimilitude' is an interesting word to use.

Gentle humour/irony:  (On finding a condom) ‘I had no idea what it was and figured you needed to be a Catholic to understand.’ (p.45)

Though it may feel as though much of Winton’s writing is bleak, he regularly inserts droll and dry humour into his stories.  The irony in this statement, focusing on the Catholics (who were not allowed to use condoms), highlights the child’s ignorance but also the unspoken rigid rules that operated in the society at the time.

Winton’s humour reflects the Australian attitude of needing to laugh at one’s self and not take things to seriously, but is also a Shakespearean technique of lightening the moments of darkness to offer emotional respite (relief) and to accentuate the later tragedy to come.

Dry, seemingly unemotional descriptions. ‘I learned to spell aquifer.’ (p.47) 

Winton’s writing in some ways is bald and raw and says a lot, but in other ways it is subtle and understated, making the reader do the work.  He regularly describes things simply and unapologetically, but at the same time, the reader is forced to ‘read into’ what that might mean for the character who struggles to express his emotions, or to be able to interpret them.  This is a classically/traditionally Australian trait (some would say a male trait, but in Winton’s stories this is not the case).  He usually compensates for the narrator’s or characters’ inability to express how they feel by using descriptions of the natural world (‘the night air was musky with smoke and sparks hung in the sky like eyes, p.47), or by varying the rhythms and structures of his sentences.  Eg. If characters feel tense he might use abrupt and jagged rhythms with lots of short words and full stops.

Showing not Telling 

Winton regularly engages the audience and adds interest by describing something in such detail, that actually stating what is happening is not needed. 

“Another set bore down on the reef. This time they were ready. The brothers hustled and jockeyed for position and Leaper felt himself smiling with real pleasure at this instant reversion to form. He wasn’t as strong as Max, but he was so much fitter that it should have been no contest except for the fact that he was out of practice. He pulled back and gave his brother the wave and Max launched into it with an expression that said it’d always been his. The old conviction.”

We understand the power dynamic between the men, without needing to read that Max feels he has control over Leaper.

Sentence Length Mimics Action and Feelings
Sand Page 166 – Short sentences to give a feeling of fast pace and breathlessness while running then long sentences to mimic slowing down, tired. This allwos the audience to become immersed in the story, and relate better to the characters thoughts and feelings.