The Two Sides Of Description

As I continue to read A simple Soul, I realized that Flaubert continues with his same style of description in great detail. When I finished the book I realized how simple this book was. I mean anyone who read it would easily say it was about a woman named Felicite and the tragic life she had. But then I wondered. What pulled me into the story? What made me be into it? The answer was simple, it was the style of Gustave Flaubert. He does not use extravagating language, on the other hand he uses medium sized sentences, organizes them in an easy way to read fast and through. One of Flaubert’s most successful style techniques was the descriptions he used. He used two different types of descriptions he used direct ones, which left a complete image of what he is describing in our minds: “His body was green, his head blue, the tips of his wings were pink and his breast was golden.” (Chapter IV). And he also used some more complicated and sophisticated such as: “Already at the threshold, she caught sight of Virginia lying on her back, with clasped hands, her mouth open and her head thrown back, beneath a black crucifix inclined toward her, and stiff curtains which were less white than her face. Madame Aubain lay at the foot of the couch, clasping it with her arms and uttering groans of agony. The Mother Superior was standing on the right side of the bed. The three candles on the bureau made red blurs, and the windows were dimmed by the fog outside.” (Chapter III).
In these two sentences we can see the variation of description that Flaubert used.

And this is what kept me entertained throughout the book. Another technique that Flaubert used to keep the reader into the story was the topic jumping. He switched topics to keep us engaged to it, and in order for us not to get bored.