An Analysis of Diction in Cormac McCarthy's Child of God

by Ian Roderick

All authors use their own sort of diction. In the excerpt from Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God, the author shows diction which is both interesting and southern slang. McCarthy begins by describing a character who enjoys hunting: “I’ll say one thing, he could by god shoot it.” The author starts by stating that the child likes to shoot: “they run him off out at the fair one time.” McCarthy finishes by showing southern dialect: “he’d just shoot directly he seen the feathers fly.” As shown, Cormac McCarthy expresses his own type of diction from the excerpt Child of God.