Hollow City Literary Elements

Hollow City Literary Elements

Genre

Fantasy, Adventure

Setting and Context

Time travel: 1940 London, the exact time of other loops is unknown (before the 20th century), present time London

Narrator and Point of View

Jacob is the narrator, point of view: first person

Tone and Mood

Tone: grim and anxious, comic at certain points
Mood: anxious, nightmarish, tense

Protagonist and Antagonist

Main protagonist is Jacob, antagonists are wights and hollows

Major Conflict

The group sets out to find help for Miss Peregrine-to turn her back to human form

Climax

After Miss Wren finally manages to help the bird everyone thinks is Miss Peregrine the bird turns into a man, the leader of wights and Miss Peregrine's brother.

Foreshadowing

Jacob's decision to not kill the hollow in the frozen fortress foreshadows the events at the end of the novel and a new development of his peculiar powers.

Understatement

The peculiar children constantly understate their ability and resourcefulness of survival. Jacob understates his peculiar powers as well.

Allusions

In the 1940 loop there are allusions to the real historical events of war and Hitler.

Imagery

The most notable imagery is that of the war stricken London and destruction of the city.

Paradox

"Laughing doesn't make bad things worse any more than crying makes them better."

Parallelism

"If.
If always propelled my thoughts back to the present, because if depended so much on
keeping my wits about me. I couldn’t properly sense things if I was distracted. If
demanded my full presence and participation in now.
If, as much as it scared me, also kept me sane."

Metonymy and Synecdoche

Metonymy: Peculiar children, peculiars are called that because of their peculiar powers.

Personification

Personification of fog in Part One Chapter One:
"And like that we slowly made our way toward land, the fog pursuing us always, its
long, gray tendrils like the ghostly fingers of some phantom hand, ever trying to draw
us back."

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