Analysis of Country Preacher by Sean Dietrich

Sean Dietrich is a great author who has published seven books as well as a number of short stories. I was initially assigned to write an essay on his story The Country Preacher; but, when I started to read his writing, this changed. I was struck by how he never talked in this account, instead of allowing the Preacher and his wife to do all of the talking. I was wondering if he did this in his other posts, so I went on to read Sean of the South, his journal.
What I discovered is Sean Dietrich's stories will take the readers on a rollercoaster of emotions and simultaneously teach them a life lesson (Boutwell 1)
Dietrich has a unique writing style that showcases where he considers home and brings focus to the mundane. “Dietrich was born in Missouri and reared in the Florida Panhandle, but calls himself an “adopted son” of Alabama” (Boutwell 1). This is why in many of his works including The Country Preacher he uses words such as “Rye-Chonder” and “Ch’all dune,” to display the south that he loves. When he was younger, he had notebooks in which he wrote stories. One day his teacher found one of the notebooks and told him he should find a different career goal because he wrote with too many commas (Boutwell 1). In an interview with Sean, he said, “I write the way I talk. I have to hear a sentence in my head the way I would say it, which is why I don’t use big words” (Boutwell 1). Along with not using ‘big words’ Dietrich centralizes those who are not of the upper class. “I told myself when I started this thing I wasn’t going to write about anyone famous.I was going to focus on exceptional people … who were underneath the radar” (Dietrich 1). Dietrich himself is from a blue-collar family who works hard for what they have (Dietrich1). The way Sean focuses on the mundane is evident in stories such as The Country Preacher. Within this story, we find that the preacher has been a farmer since he was a young boy, and has done missionary work with his wife, yet we find out nothing about the narrator. In my opinion, this is Sean’s way of staying out of the spotlight
Dietrich writing style is characteristic of short fiction and humor and this is evident in most of his publications across Southeast and this includes Tallahassee Democrat, South Magazine, Wired Magazine, and Books. After the publication of his short story in a journal newspaper from his hometown during his child hood, he went ahead to pursue his literary interests and is now known for writing short stories, and novels full of emotions and humor. In his writing, one thing that stands out is that Dietrich is always brief and direct to his points with all-inclusive descriptions a good example being his description of the Southern belles (Dietrich 1-152). His style of writing manages to gracefully capture the multi-faceted and spirits of the culture of the intended audience. Dietrich touches on the basic things in the society such as family and church to style and sass. This approach makes his writing come out as being beautifully poetic and incredibly honest. He focus on writing life at it is to the common man and not in a flashy manner but goes straight to the things that he feels are the most important to the readers. This way, he has managed to capture not just the attention but most importantly, the hearts of many people, making what many people consider as being normal part of life, into extraordinary lessons in life, making his readers to remain loyal to his works and keep asking for more. His works are full of passion in the way that he directly involves himself in his writing with most of the stories assuming the center stage as the main character and therefore share his life experiences to the readers (Dietrich 1).
Dietrich writing style is also considered as being unique now that most of his writing are focused on a specific region, the South, particularly life in the small towns in the Florida Panhandle and Alabama (Dietrich 1-146). Many of his short stories and novels are tales of the two small towns as well as include other towns in the South such as Greenville, Andalusia, and Georgiana in his stories. These towns do just play a vital role in the stories by Dietrich but the entire nation in general. He was quoted saying in one of the interviews that small towns mean everything to him and that they are a dying form of art. He has little interest on the big areas and that he normally starts to develop shortness of breath any time he comes across too many traffic lights in one place (Dietrich 1-146)
Looking at the novels, newspaper articles, and short stories, Dietrich style of writing stands out as being a simple one like that of a fourth-grade level so as to make his readers understand well his ideas, brief and straight to the point, full of emotions as always narrates about life experiences but occasionally introduces humor, and his stories are mainly from a given region, that is small towns in the South.



Works Cited
Boutwell, Josh. “Well-known ‘Sean of the South’ visits Andalusia” Star News. June 16, 2017. http://www.andalusiastarnews.com/2017/06/16/well-known-sean-of-the-south-visits-andalusia/ Accessed 29 November 2017
Dietrich Sean. Biography. November 29, 2017 http://seandietrich.com/
Dietrich Sean. Country Preacher: Sean of the South. November 29, 2017 http://seandietrich.com/
Dietrich Sean. Little Ladies. November 29, 2017 http://seandietrich.com/
Dietrich Sean. Sean of the South. New York: Create Space Independent Publishing Platform, 2015.p152
Dietrich Sean. Small Towns Labradors Barbecue Biscuits Beer and Bibles. New York: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015.p146
Murray Balkcom. Featured Local Writer – Sean Dietrich – Sean of the South. March 27, 2017. http://explore30a.com/2017/03/featured-local-writer-sean-dietrich/ Accessed 29 November 2017