Luckiest Girl Alive Literary Elements

Psychological thriller; fiction

The primary action of the novel takes place in 2016 in New York City and the surrounding area. There is also a substantial retrospective narratives describing events that took place at a small town in Pennsylvania in the autumn of 2001.

Ani is the narrator and protagonist, and the novel is narrated in the first-person, from Ani's perspective. Ani describes events unfolding in 2016, and often turns back to describe events that took place in 2001. When Ani retrospectively narrates events that took place in the past, she reflects on the emotions she felt at the time.

The tone of the novel is often bitter, acerbic, cynical, and calculating. Because of what she has experienced, Ani has very little faith in other people, or in the world around her. She often makes snide remarks about other people, and about cultural expectations placed upon women. The mood, especially in the flashbacks leading up to attack at the school, is often dark and foreboding.

The protagonist is Ani, and the antagonist is Dean.

The major conflict occurs between Ani and male characters who dehumanize her because of their misogynistic beliefs. When she is a teenager, these characters are Dean, Liam, and Peyton, who violently rape Ani, and never feel any sense of guilt or responsibility, Later, Ani's own fiancé, Luke, becomes an antagonist because he does not truly respect or trust Ani, and only sees her through his lens of what he wants a woman to be.

The climax comes when Ani calls of her wedding. She realizes that the security she thinks she will get from being married is false, and that she would rather live an authentic life.

The scene where Arthur shows Ani his gun foreshadows how he will later attack and shoot other students.

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On Ani's first day at Bradley, the class discusses the novel Catcher in the Rye. This scene alludes to some shared themes between the Salinger novel and Knoll's novel, including the notion of an unreliable narrator.

Important imagery in the novel includes sexual violence, gun violence, Ani's emotional state, and her descriptions of New York City.

The central paradox of the novel is that Ani has worked hard to achieve what looks like a glamorous life. However, readers soon learn that this life has left her unfulfilled and that she is often suffocated by the very lifestyle she espouses.

There is a parallelism between Ani’s desire to do a documentary and her healing process.

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