Genre
Memoir
Setting and Context
The action takes place over the course of a year at the narrator's home.
Narrator and Point of View
The action in the memoir is told from the perspective of a first-person subjective point of view.
Tone and Mood
The tone and mood is a desperate one.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is Helen and the antagonist is death.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is between the inevitability of death and a person's will to live.
Climax
The memoir reaches its climax when Helen tames Mabel.
Foreshadowing
The death of Helen's father is used here to foreshadow later instances in which the narrator will have to face difficult situations in her life.
Understatement
When the narrator claims that everything will be better once she tames Mabel is an understatement because the narrator is still unable to come to terms with the grief caused by her father's death.
Allusions
One of the main allusions found here is the idea that a person can only find peace by returning back to nature.
Imagery
One of the most important imageries is that of the narrator sitting in her room alone after she learned of her father's death. This image is important because it shows just how much death can affect a person and how it can destroy one's self-confidence.
Paradox
N/A
Parallelism
A parallel is drawn between the hawk the narrator trains and the narrator herself. This parallel is an important one because it is used to transmit the idea that happiness stems primarily from a rupture from nature. Because of this, humans will always be unhappy while animals will always be happy.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The hawk is used here as a general term to make reference to a person's desire to move on and succeed in life.
Personification
We have a personification in the sentence "the trees embraced me as a mother would".
