Rendering of impressions in Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier

Abstract

Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier is a rendering of impressions as the major characters have no external reality but are simply the projections of the author’s creative imagination. Rather than following a linear plot, it enters the mind of storyteller and follows his associated ideas in a tangled stream of consciousness. In the novel, the narrator expresses only his limited knowledge, impression, and perception about the characters in front of the reader. Most of the time, narrator tells his past experiences and the events which merely shocked him. There is a fusion of colors with the impressionist language, plot, narrative techniques, experiences, and limited knowledge of the narrator. The narrator John Dowell shows only his experiences, impressions, knowledge and events of the story which are shocking for him. The whole story weaves only narrator’s perception.