What is the author's style in In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck?

Steinbeck uses an omniscient third person narrator to tell the story. This technique allows him to explore the story’s underlying ideas from varying perspectives and present a relatively unbiased account of the struggle between workers and invested capital, an exploration of communism that tries neither to champion nor condemn it, but simply to understand it. Readers are left to form their own opinions of the merits of the arguments for each side in the struggle, but the lack of emotional identification with a first person narrator often leaves readers feeling somewhat distanced from the characters.

Steinbeck relies heavily on dialogue as a technique for both plot development and indirect characterization. What the reader knows of Jim’s background before he joins the Party comes out in his conversations with Harry Nilson and Mac, and this background information helps the reader understand the motivation behind Jim’s ready embrace of service to the Party.

Steinbeck’s choices in regard to diction serve both to create a sense of realism in setting and characters and to develop character. The imagery in his language, for example, makes it easy for readers to feel what it is like to be in the nighttime orchard with Jim and Mac and Burton as they talk. Mac’s chameleon-like nature is reflected in his language; “You imitate any speech you’re taking part in,” Burton tells him.