Chopin’s writing style in “At the ‘Cadian Ball” involves the frequent use of free indirect discourse. This is a technique that writers use in which they tell a story from a “close” third person perspective, meaning that the narrator will, at times, directly channel the thoughts and feelings of a given character. Since Chopin’s narrator is omniscient, the character they are close to changes throughout the story. Here they almost seem to merge with Bobinôt’s perspective as a result of Chopin’s use of free indirect discourse:
Bobinôt, that big, brown, good-natured Bobinôt, had no intention of going to the ball, even though he knew Calixta would be there. For what came of those balls but heartache, and a sickening disinclination for work the whole week through, till Saturday night came again and his tortures began afresh? Why could he not love Ozéina, who would marry him tomorrow; or Fronie, or any one of a dozen others, rather than that little Spanish vixen?
In the first sentence of this passage, the narrator and Bobinôt are two separate people, as seen in the narrator’s description of how “Bobinôt has no intention of going to the ball.” In the sentences that follow, however, Bobinôt almost disappears as his thoughts become the narrator’s thoughts. It’s not the narrator who’s asking “For what came of those balls but heartache, and a sickening disinclination for work the whole week through?” but Bobinôt. By having the narrator essentially channel the characters’ thoughts, Chopin helps readers to understand the perspective of each character more clearly. (In this particular case, they hear from Bobinôt directly that he feels conflicted about his love for Calixta and wishes he could desire a less complicated woman.)
At the level of prose, Chopin’s style involves a lot of similes, metaphors, and figurative language. She also has her characters speak in Acadian and Creole dialects, adding to the realism of the story.
