The Good Soldier is a complicated novel in many ways, and deliberately so. Stylistically, Ford’s language is meant to represent the complications of human memory and the way in which bias and emotional investment shape versions of the truth. Because its narrator is “telling” a story to the reader, the pacing of the novel is nonlinear. The way that John Dowell jumps between anecdotes and returns to comment on past recollections creates a sense of suspense and unpredictability: it’s never clear if anything is the entire truth. The fragmented timeline mirrors the complexity and the many hidden layers of the lives of the people he is discussing. The fact that it always seems incomplete is part of the novel’s realism; as with any story, the reader only hears the side the teller wants them to hear. It’s never clear whether events are as significant as John tells the reader they were, or even if he is disclosing everything he knows.
Ford's diction in the novel is sophisticated and intricate, which reflects its well-educated, high society narrator. The narrative voice is often emotional and hyperbolic, which lends drama to John’s intense descriptions of small, intimate events. Ford is also often ironic, and the writing often contradicts itself, which repeatedly reminds the reader that they’re only hearing one person’s version of things. Its syntax is also complex and convoluted, which formally represents the tangled emotions and relationships within the story. Sentences are often lengthy and composed of multiple clauses, which ties into the multifaceted perspectives that John summarizes or guesses at. This complexity makes the reader have to pay very close attention to the text, as if they were listening to a complicated story in order to piece it together rather than just reading it.
Ford employs a great deal of visual imagery and metaphor in The Good Soldier, as his narrator “tries” to bring the scenes to life for his reader. His use of euphemism and indirect references is notable, as if his narrator can't quite bear to fully explain things. This, like many other things in the novel, forces the reader to infer and interpret, drawing their own conclusions and making judgments alongside the narrator.
