Pope 3.3 New Criticism

If I was a “new critic” I would focus on the way John uses the dialogue in a patterned way to create a pattern that evokes certain feelings. He will use shorter back and forth stile dialogue, then switch to a narration from himself. He also uses local dialogue that contributes to the scene and “texture” of the text.

If I were a Formalist, I would note how the background and foreground are laid out through the localized southern dialect along with the bigger picture of the town and its mysteries.