Writing Techniques in The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate Techniques

The Manchurian Candidate is a sus pense thriller that also proffers a radical criticism of American society, and these two goals are not always compatible with one another. Condon does not succeed in fully integrating his social criticism with the plot, and as a result, there are often embarrassing interludes when someone is forced to deliver a didactic, rhetorical speech that seems stiff, unnatural, and sometimes even out of character. It is an indication of the effectiveness of Condon's plotting that these moments of stasis are overcome by the overall impetus of the narrative, and that The Manchurian Candidate managed to attract a large mass audience despite its inclusion of an amount of sociopolitical commentary more commonly found in nonfiction works on public affairs.