Pulitzer Pathos

As I pour over the contents of Olive Kitteridge, I cannot help but take notice at the masterful writing style of Elizabeth Strout.  The abundant imagery of Maine’s gray landscape-- with its cold waters, prolific vegetation, and turbulent weather-- effectively pulls the reader into the story.   Strout generates a vivid and intricate setting that not only allows for imaginations to run wild with sensory details, but also permits a powerful story to take place.  While the descriptive talent of Strout plays a large role in her writing style, I think that her copious use of pathos serves as her most efficacious literary mechanism.  Throughout the novel, Strout writes about thirteen interconnected vignettes.  And within each short story, Strout explores the stretches of the human condition.  For instance, in one extended anecdote, Olive and her husband Henry get caught up in a drug heist at a hospital.  Shaking with the fear of imminent death, Olive and Henry exchanged words that caused them to change “how they saw each other” (124).  Strout spreads pathos by evoking an emotion of deep pity from those that have troubled marriages.  Olive acts as a synecdoche for quiet regret—a representation of the desire to change what has already happened.  Forever affected by remorse, Strout accentuates the potency of lamentation.  Within minutes of time, the lives of the Kitteridge couple “were changed” forever due to a small window block of extreme fear (118).  Months later, after Henry has a stroke, Olive's depression deepened when she contemplated how her and her elderly friends would soon “be dead”, noting the fleeting characteristic of life.  Strout furthers pathos by creating an emotion of sadness from those who lost an immediate family member.  Stressing the unexpected aspects of life, Strout makes the assertion that small moments can have far-reaching consequences.    In the blink of an eye, Olive fragmented the relationship with her husband after saying a few words.  And in another quick series of events, Olive lost the complete mentality and personality of her husband.  Such volatility epitomizes the preciousness of life itself.