A Brief Comment on Writing Skill of BLACKMAIL.docVIP

A Brief Comment on Writing Skill of BLACKMAIL 　　Abstract： HOTEL is the famous novel written by Arthur Hailey， a Canadian contemporary novelist. The novel recounts a succession of dramatic events that happens in one of the largest hotels in New Orleans. The novel is neither complicated nor fantastic， but it is very fascinating and absorbing. Besides its original ideas and compact， well-organised structure， the unique description of characters is the most important distinguishing feature in the novel. Ogilvie， Duke Croydon and his wife （the Duchess of Croydon） are main characters in HOTEL. BLACKMAIL is one excerpt from this novel， it is about the hotel security supervisor Ogilvie knows the story of the Duke and Duchess of a hit and run accident and blackmails them. All three have distinctive， life-like personalities. The purpose of this paper is to analyse these characters from their actions， dialogues， psychology and appearances. 　　Key words： BLACKMAIL； writing skill； character 　　Lun Xun， a great Chinese critic and writer， summarized a piece of constructive experience through his rich writing practice： “It’s best to draw one’s eyes if you want to draw out his features briefly. Even if you have drawn all of his hair as vividly as life， it’s meaningless （1928）”. Following his principle， the author of BLACKMAIL focuses his writing on describing the eyes and eye-sight of the characters and sketching out the features briefly and lifelike. Examples of describing the Duchess eyes： 　　“…the Duchess looked pointed at the half-burned cigar.” 　　“…she shot him a swift warning glance.” 　　“…her grey-green eyes blazing at him.” 　　“Her eyes were riveted on his face.” 　　“（Her） Eyes bored into him.” 　　Eyes are the window of one’s spirits. A few words are enough to bring out the fierce and malicious heart of the Duchess. 　　In the last paragraph of BLACKMAIL， the author writes a description of Ogilvie eyes： “The house detective’s eyes bulged； continued to stare； and his bea