An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Literary Elements

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Literary Elements

Genre

A foundational essay for modern philosophical empiricism

Setting and Context

Set in the 16th century

Narrator and Point of View

Third-person narrative

Tone and Mood

Informative and buoyant

Protagonist and Antagonist

Humanity is the central character in the essay.

Major Conflict

The main conflict is that the inborn ideas are already in place, forming an ultimate lucidity of Cartesian rationalism.

Climax

The climax is the protestation to the central reasoning of the reality of the unique ideas through coherent examination based on pragmatic substantiation.

Foreshadowing

The acquisition of knowledge at birth foreshadows the central symbolism in the essay.

Understatement

The systematic undoing of the code of non-experiential information by Locke is understated.

Allusions

The essay’s contents allude to empirical-based opinions against the traditions of rationalism.

Imagery

The images of human beings as animals dominate the essay. Through this imagery of sight, Locke clarifies that human beings are natural animals with advanced thinking capabilities.

Paradox

The paradox of knowledge dominates Locke’s essay. Locke argues that knowledge is not innate but acquired through human progress.

Parallelism

N/A

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The author uses empirical evidence as a metonymy for actual proof.

Personification

Animals are incarnated as humans.

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