What is the author's style in Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz?

Gombrowicz uses wordplay to convey meaning throughout. The author equates characteristics of personality to parts of the body. Legs indicate sexuality and comfort with the physical form, as well as athleticism and modernity. The "pupa," meaning butt, indicates childishness and immaturity. The "mug," or face, represents idealism and a world of ideas. Using the parts of a body to indicate the parts of a personality is a metaphor in itself. The parts of the body become metaphors for parts of a person. They exist independently, but combined become parts of a whole. This in turn is also a metaphor for a work of literature, which exists in parts and pieces as well as as a whole.

The author makes figurative things literal throughout the novel. "Belittling" someone metaphorically makes them literally smaller. Joey becomes a seventeen-year-old boy because he is belittled by a professor. The peasants, who are defending themselves against outside idealists, literally become dogs, barking and growling and attacking Joey and Kneadus. In a world where words create reality, they take on immense power. When the peasants begin to think and talk poorly of Joey's uncle, the lord loses his power.

The title of the novel is a nonsense word. It is never mentioned in the novel, and ultimately it is meaningless. Its meaninglessness is more wordplay. The author dares the reader to find meaning in his trivial, immature work. Breaking down the book by analysis to find the meaning will yield nothing, because the meaning of the work is only in the book as a whole experience of reading.