style and technique in lucky jim

Lucky Jim is a conventional novel; its narration is third person, its development is chronological, and its style is a conventional mixture of dialogue and description. The characterizations are clearly and sharply drawn. The novel abounds in verbal wit, comic gesture, and good natured satire. One of its most distinguished qualities is the pacing and power of key descriptive passages. Amis controls and builds excruciatingly comic tension in such descriptions as Welch attempting to pass a van on a curve with a bus veering down from the opposite direction or Jim awakening with a hangover to discover that his mouth still bears witness to his excesses. A recurrent theme in criticism on Amis is that he continues a long tradition of wit, social satire, and picaresque heroism which began with the novels of Henry Fielding, and that he provides for contemporary readers satirical novels like those Evelyn... The point of view of this novel is the third person omniscient point of view. The entire novel is seen through the eyes of James Dixon, the protagonist. Dixon is a young university lecturer in the history department of a small university after the Second World War. Dixon is unhappy in his job, but is fighting hard to keep the job because of the security it will mean for his future. Unfortunately, Dixon is a frequent victim of social faux pas that leave Dixon constantly attempting to cover up his mistakes.

The point of view of this novel works because it keeps the narration right in the middle of the plot, with Dixon. Dixon's frequent mistakes are full of humor, especially when he often makes these mistakes worse by attempting to cover them up. If the point of view were to shift from character to character...