Genre
An autobiographical novel
Setting and Context
Knoxville, 1915. The events take place during summertime.
Narrator and Point of View
The prologue is written in the first person point of view. The rest of the story is written in the third person omniscient point of view. This change could be explained with the author’s need to give the reader access to the thoughts and feelings of every character.
Tone and Mood
The tone and mood of the story could be characterized as depressive and uneasy.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Rufus can be considered to be a protagonist of the story, for he represents James Agee himself. Ralph Follet is an antagonist of the story. Unlike his brother Jay, he is not able to cope with an alcohol addiction and continues destroying lives of his wife and his one and only child.
Major Conflict
Major conflict occurs between Mary’s religiousness and atheism of Jay and some other members of her family.
Climax
A climax is achieved when Mary realizes that Jay is dead.
Foreshadowing
James Agee writes in the prologue that this is a story about time when he lived in Knoxville “disguised as a child”. This phrase gives a hint that the novel is going to tell about a certain event from Agee’s childhood.
Understatement
When Aunt Hannah takes Rufus to a matronly store, men start staring at her, because this is the territory where a woman is not supposed to go. This example shows that unseen border which used to exist or maybe even exist now between men’s and women’s worlds. And it was indeed world the most alien to women.
Allusions
The novel contains mention of famous and outstanding people such as Abraham Lincoln, William S. Hart, and Charlie Chaplin.
Imagery
The author uses imagery to describe scenery, sounds and, of course, feelings of the characters.
Paradox
Strange happy sadness
Strange happy sadness is a feeling which appears in the characters’ hearts during those especially uneventful summer evenings, when a day dies and night comes.
Parallelism
People go by; things go by.
Parallelism is used to show the changeability of everything.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
There lay a whole family, large and small, silent, asleep.
Large and small are an example of synecdoche which denotes adults and children.
He heard the creaking and departure of the Ford.
The Ford is metonymy which denotes a car.
Personification
Sleep, soft smiling, draws me unto her.
Sleeps is an example of personification. The author may use it in order to show how a child perceives the world.
