Literary notes about disjointed (AI summary)
In literature, disjointed is often used to evoke a sense of fragmentation and disruption in both speech and structure. Writers apply the term to depict characters whose thoughts or words come out in broken, irregular bursts, as when a character struggles to regain a barely audible, convulsive speech in [1] or mutters bitter, halting complaints in [2]. It also characterizes narrative or physical action that feels out of sync, thereby emphasizing a lack of cohesion—consider the portrayal of a play that shifts from rehearsed familiarity to an unexpectedly lifeless form in [3]. On a broader scale, disjointed can describe the fractured alignment of ideas or social order, such as when scattered fragments of rationality are likened to a moral wilderness in [4]. This multifaceted usage enhances the emotional and structural depth of literary works by underscoring the tension between order and chaos.
- At last, with a convulsive effort, he regained a disjointed speech, in a voice scarcely audible.
— from A Millionaire of Rough-and-Ready by Bret Harte - Over and over he muttered his bitter complaints at himself in disjointed sentences.
— from King Spruce, A Novel by Holman Day - It surprised him to see that the play which he had known at rehearsals for a disjointed lifeless thing had suddenly assumed a life of its own.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - We can observe sporadic growths, disjointed fragments of rationality, springing up in a moral wilderness.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
