Still, I began this novel with one big story idea and question in mind—an elite paratrooper becomes a minister. Here’s a man used to solving problems with a rifle or his fists … What sort of wild-hearted minister might such a man make?
THE HISTORICITY OF DIALECT
Why Rowdy speaks the way he does
I’ve always been fascinated by classical novels such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Catcher in the Rye, which all recounted stories in the dialect and spoken attitude of the respective day. As Mark Twain wrote in an explanatory note to Huck Finn, “The [use of dialects has] not been done in a haphazard fashion; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these forms of speech.”
The same is true for Rowdy Slater. Here was my protagonist—born in a small town in western Texas, educated to tenth grade, a manual laborer in Roosevelt’s CCC camps, a paratrooper in an elite army unit, a prisoner in a military jail, a drifter, an outlaw, and finally a student of Scripture. I envisioned Rowdy as an older man, leaning against the mantel of a fireplace, dictating this book. He would say, “Well, years ago, this is how it all began …” And then I asked myself, How might such a man talk and write?
To create Rowdy’s speech patterns, as part of the process of researching this book, I pored through almanacs, visited cities and towns in Texas, researched jail systems, read dozens of nonfiction books and novels, studied innumerable war and Western movies, and spoke to Texas pastors. Central to my research was interviewing WWII veterans.
Rowdy’s army experience posed a unique challenge. When divisions such as the 101st were created, men were brought together from all across America and from all walks of life. Rowdy would have been exposed to this smorgasbord of dialects for the nearly three years he was in the service.
Below is a sampling of some speech patterns from WWII veterans.
Use of double negatives:
J. B. Stokes: “I wasn’t at Toccoa where they’d formed up. But I didn’t have no trouble with the guys.”
Swapped verbs:
J. Anderson: “When we got to the north end of Peleliu, we was put on amphibian tractors again.”
Colloquialisms:
Clancy Lyall: “Swimming in that nasty [Sabine River in Texas] are water moccasins and copperheads. Dad threw me right in. I doggied out of that place like you never saw.”
Using “aggravation” to describe trouble:
Bill Wingett: “I certainly didn’t have any aggravation with the Indians.”
Use of larger words despite lack of schooling:
Hank Zimmerman: “I didn’t have much schooling. I had to quit school, which I hated. I didn’t want to quit but my old man told me to go out and get a job. My old man was a tyrant…. I was working at Phelps Dodge. There were a lot of promises of good things to come that never materialized.”
Continuous present tense (“ing” verbs):
Rod Bain: “I was minding my own business as a student when suddenly we were in a world war with no apparent limitations.”
Use of “reckon” to mean guess or judge:
Dewitt Lowrey: “My family was pretty close. I don’t reckon we could have had a better mother. But she also had a temper and knew how to use a switch.”
Use of “real” as an adjective (instead of “really”)
Darrell Powers: “We were going to take the town, but we got there real late and didn’t have time to do it before dark.”
Upbeat and optimistic language:
Robert Van Klinken [in a letter home]: “Say Johnny, I bought another guitar the other day. Gave 30 bucks for it. It sure is a honey.”
Humorous, self-deprecating language:
Sid Phillips: “We were so stupid, we’d never heard of Parris Island [the Marine Corps Recruiting Station in South Carolina]. I think that recruiting sergeant told us we’d have a short training at a beautiful resort. We were rapidly sorry within the first few hours that we were there.”
Sentences beginning with “well”:
Sterling Mace: “Well, if you can’t play ball, you don’t stay with the ball team. So they sent me over to the post troops, which is a different duty every day.”
Note also that many of the WWII vets I’ve spoken with mix expletives in with their speech, although the expletives are used more for emphasis than to actually curse. I figured that Rowdy would filter the cussing out of his speech patterns due to his new profession.
THANKS
Deborah Keiser and the team at River North Fiction. Greg Johnson and the WordServe Literary Group. Early readers H. C. Jones, Robert Craddock, Karen Sue Clark, Elizabeth Jones, and Becky Kimball. The men of Easy Company, 506th PIR, 101st and their families. The Marines of K/3/5, H/2/1, and D/1/7 and their families. The University of North Texas libraries. Clint Whitwer. Matt Weeda. The people of Dallas, Houston, Austin, Plano, Bonton, Galveston, (and Texas in general) for your hospitality during research trips. Mike and Judy Albin, Graham and Dorothy Brotherton, Paul and Renay Fredette for your vision in sponsorship. Mary Margaret, Addy, Zach, and Amie-Merrin for your love.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marcus Brotherton is a journalist and professional writer, the author or coauthor of more than twenty-five books. Many of his books center on the veterans who fought in World War II, what they stood for, and their struggles and triumphs upon returning home. Notable nonfiction includes Shifty’s War, A Company of Heroes, and the oral history project We Who Are Alive and Remain: Untold Stories from the Band of Brothers, a New York Times bestseller. Feast for Thieves is his first novel.
Marcus was born in 1968 in Canada, the son of a minister father and a journalist mother. He studied theology and writing and earned a bachelor’s degree from Multnomah University in Portland, Oregon, and a master’s degree from Talbot Seminary at Biola University in Los Angeles. He served in pastoral ministry in rural church settings for nearly a decade before turning to a career in writing full-time. Marcus lives with his wife and children in Bellingham, Washington.
Read his blog: www.marcusbrotherton.com.
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