American Literature / Unit 2 AML 0117 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Free Indirect Discourse
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The idea
Free indirect discourse lets a third-person narrator borrow a character's words and attitude without quotation marks, so the sentence belongs to both at once. The technique is how a narrator can be ironic about a character while seeming to speak for them.
In practice
The narrator's grammar, the character's mind.
Where people slip
Irony often hides in this construction.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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