A Limited Palette.

The limited linguistic palette and repetitive techniques echo the monotony of the post-apocalyptic world that is described.
This is shown at many points during the novel, it is shown prominently through McCarthy's use of the man waking alone during the night in the text, shown in Page 62 in the lines "Something woke him. He turned on his side and lay listening". It is too shown earlier, on Page 2, as McCarthy writes "With the first gray light he rose and left the boy sleeping and walked out to the road", this echo's the loneliness of the man, he has no companion other than his boy, who does clearly offer no emotional//intellectual stability for him.
This analysis is again proved correct through McCarthy's use of imperative, single word sentences. This is shown on Page 16, through the use of "ratty", it suggests the baroness of the landscape, and how descriptions don't seemingly matter, as the land is considered compact and  lonely.






Avoiding emotional language and keeping it simple makes the narrative all the more emotionally engaging.
This is shown through the boy asking "Were they the bad guys?", this is shown to be childishly simple, almost as if what is happening to the Man and his Boy is part of a comical horror book//film, it almost makes the novel farcical as it does not show what readers would believe to be true emotion. However, through McCarthy's style this does not show the novel to be farcical due to lack of emotion, but instead all the more emotionally engaging as it shows the child's vulnerability and youth as despite being brought up in a horrific, baron landscape, he still has feelings that make him a child at heart. It is important as it reminds the reader that not every 'survivor' is an adult, and the child is not necessarily as ready for the cruelty of life that the Man expects him to be ready for, shown in lines like  "Do it quick and hard. Do you understand?" when teaching his young son how to shoot himself.




Figurative Language and Poetic Vocabulary.
"Reflecting the sun deep in the darkness like a flash of knives in a cave". -Page 42
"Robes by candlelight a midnight supper and watched distant cities burn". -Page 61
"They clanked past, marching with a swaying gait like wind up toys". -Page 96
"They stood watching pale gray flakes sift down out the sullen murk". -Page 98



Language of a different kind is used primarily in two other instances throughout the novel, the language when the Man speaks to the Boy is often authoritative and demanding. This is shown on Page 73 as the Man says "Stop it. I want you to do what I say. Take the gun". The Man may speak to the Boy like this as he sees it as his duty to look after the Boy and keep him alive, whether this is to prove his Wife wrong or because he truly wants to live. Whichever of these it is the Man seemingly speaks to the boy possessively as in this wasteland there are no lives, just shells of people who want to survive, suggesting the Man may not want to get overly attached to anything that can be taken away from him in a split second, explaining why he may emotionally distance himself from the Boy.



Differing language is also used by McCarthy when the Man speaks of his, now deceased, Wife. The Man is again shown to be slightly scorned//heartless when speaking of his wife, this is shown on Page 53 when the Man "sat holding the photography (of his dead wife)...laid it down in the road also and then he stood and they went on.". This suggests the Man now holds his Wife in no regard whatsoever after she is perceived to have abandoned them by killing herself. McCarthy uses this style in order to suggest the harsh reality that the world has succumbed to, as in the Man cannot appear weak in front of the Boy, this reinforces the earlier line that they are "each the others world entire, which in turn backs up the suggestion that McCarthy may be attempting to portray a patriarchal society, as Women play no major role within the novel.


Literary Analysis Statement.
The use of different sentence types//structures within the novel create the feel of the complexity of human life (complex sentences), but how it can become limited at any point (short sentences).