Conversational, With Rhetorical Questions and Dialogue
Suiting a humble man, Gandhi writes in a conversational style…though probably one that's way more educated or highbrow than most conversations you hear. But, even though he doesn't sound like the transcript of a convo you overhead in line at Starbucks, he doesn't use a lot of big words or complex punctuation. He just tells you what he's thinking as he recollects his past experiments with truth. Indeed, he says he is "writing this story as the Spirit prompts" him (4.11.4).
Rhetorical Questions
How does his conversational style show itself in his sentences? Is one way his ample use of rhetorical questions? Are we asking you rhetorical questions right now?
Bingo.
Rhetorical questions are questions that the author already knows the answer to, and he's just using them as a way of introducing a topic so he can answer the question himself. Check out this two-paragraph passage, for example, where Big G ponders what to do with expensive gifts people have given his family:
I had no costly ornaments in the house. We had been fast simplifying our life. How then could we afford to have gold watches? How could we afford to wear gold chains and diamond rings? Even then I was exhorting people to conquer the infatuation for jewelry. What was I now to do with the jewelry that had come upon me?
I decided that I could not keep these things. (3.12.9-10)
So, at the start of the first paragraph, Gandhi already knows he had decided not to keep the gifts, but he's writing out the rhetorical questions in his thought process to illustrate the conversation he was having with himself in his head about what to do. His own internal conversation becomes a conversation with the reader.
Dialogue
Another way Gandhi keeps the writing style conversational is through the heavy use of dialogue. Imagine you're telling your friend about an upsetting conversation you had with your other friend. "What'd she say?" your first friend wants to know. "What did you say back?" You verbally replay the conversation for your friend so that they can experience what it was like to be there.
For the same reason, Gandhi writes out the conversations he had in the past, even though he definitely didn't have a tape recorder at the time and he can't perfectly remember what everyone said. But, his accounts of the conversations keep his writing more life-like, everyday, and conversational. Check out this example, also from the time when he was considering what to do with the gifts:
The children readily agreed to my proposal. "We do not need these costly presents, we must return them to the community, and should we ever need them, we could easily purchase them," they said.
I was delighted. "Then you will plead with mother, won't you?" I asked them.
"Certainly," said they. "That is our business. She does not need to wear the ornaments. She would want to keep them for us, and if we don't want them, why should she not agree to part with them?"
But it was easier said than done.
"You may not need them," said my wife. "Your children may not need them. Cajoled they will dance to your tune. I can understand your not permitting me to wear them. But what about my daughters-in-law?" (3.12.12-16)
This back and forth takes us into Gandhi's family and lets us see the conflict unfold in a natural way. Gandhi's use of dialogue keeps his writing style easy to read…even if probably no one in the history of family arguments has probably ever actually said, "Cajoled they will dance to your tune." (Sure sounds good, though.)