Eight Men Literary Elements

Eight Men Literary Elements

Genre

Short Story Collection

Setting and Context

Set in 1959

Narrator and Point of View

Third-person narrative

Tone and Mood

Ambitious, optimistic, hopeful and fascinating

Protagonist and Antagonist

The main character is David Saunders.

Major Conflict

The main conflict is in the story 'The Man Who Was Almost a Man', in which Dave wants to demonstrate his manhood. Unfortunately, after buying a gun, he kills his employer's mule because he does not have experience in using a gun. Dave is forced to pay fifty dollars, and the gun is withdrawn from him.

Climax

The climax is in the story 'The Man Who Lived Underground', where Fred hides in sewage tunnels after being wrongly accused of murder. While living in the tunnel, Fred turns into a spy; when he spies on the activities taking place in the mortuary, he sees an undertaker washing the body of a white man. Therefore, Fred is happy to realize that racial discrimination does not exist in death.

Foreshadowing

Dave's embarrassment in the story 'The Man Who Was Almost a Man' is foreshadowed by his desire to prove manhood.

Understatement

People's confessions in the story 'The Man Who Lived Underground' are understated. When Fred spies on the church, he is shocked to learn that people confess their criminalities to a man who seems holy enough to forgive them.

Allusions

The stories in the collection allude to fantasy, humor and explorations.

Imagery

The imagery of the mortuary depicts sight to readers. Through sight imagery, readers see how the undertaker washes the body of a dead white man and realizes that racial discrimination does not exist in death.

Paradox

The main paradox is in the story 'The Man Who Lived Underground', in which Fred is wrongly accused of murdering a white woman. Instead of defending himself, Fred hides in the sewage tunnel.

Parallelism

N/A

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The sewage water is a metonymy for the rot in society. For instance, the entire governance structure and the police force are corrupt.

Personification

The tunnel is described as a cave that gives solace to Fred. Therefore, the tunnel is incarnated as having the ability to save human life.

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