SOURCE: Stockwell, Peter. “Language, Knowledge, and the Stylistics of Science Fiction.” In Subjectivity and Literature from the Romantics to the Present Day, edited by Philip Shaw and Peter Stockwell, pp. 101-12. London: Pinter Publishers, 1991.

In the following essay, Stockwell provides a stylistic analysis of “The Night,” focusing on Bradbury's utilization of language and the story's place within the conventions of science fiction.

This [essay] will be concerned with language in relation to the genre of Science Fiction (SF), and will deal with the practice of stylistics and the reading of texts. In the spirit of SF itself, the discussion will draw on work from a variety of disciplines which will be brought to bear on a short story ‘The Night’, by the American SF writer, Ray Bradbury.¹ Firstly, however, to facilitate this discussion I would remind the reader of the story of the roadrunner. In those cartoons, first...