A Hologram For the King Literary Elements

Fictional autobiography

The action takes place in present time in Saudi Arabia.

The action is told from the perspective of a third-person objective point of view.

The tone and mood used in the story is a mocking one.

The protagonist is Alan but there is no real antagonist described in the story.

The major conflict is presented as being an internal one and is between the main character's desire to remain in a relatively safe space in his life or daring to take risks.

The story reaches its climax when Alan meets Zahra for the first time.

The first day Alan spends in Saudi Arabia he oversleeps and misses the important meeting he was supposed to have with the King's representatives. This foreshadows the fact that the whole trip will be a disaster.

At the beginning of the novel, the narrator claims that Alan has all the makings of a successful businessman. This is proven to be an understatement because moments later the narrator describes how Alan led himself to financial ruin as well as countless other people who were for him.

One of the main allusions we find in the book is the idea that Alan is far from being a stable person. This is foreshadowed at the moment when Alan tries to biopsy a lump on his back and ends up in the hospital due to the bleeding.

One of the most important images appears at the end of the story after Alan and Zahra decided to be together. Then, they are portraying staying side by side in bed, both completely happy. This image is an important one because it portrays complete bliss and happiness and a happy ending for the two characters.

One of the most paradoxical ideas is the way in which Alan continues to try and become successful in Arabia even though it is clear he will never succeed.

No parallelism can be found here.

Money is used in this book as a general way to make reference to the idea of financial stability.

We have a personification in the sentence "the clock reminded him with every move of hid failure".