Red at the Bone Literary Elements

by Jacqueline Woodson

Red at the Bone Literary Elements

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Genre

Coming of age novel

Setting and Context

Three generations, America

Narrator and Point of View

Melody, Iris, Sade

Tone and Mood

Positive, real

Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonist: Meldoy, Iris and Sade, Antagonist: Life and the world

Major Conflict

Iris is pregnant when she is sixteen-years-old.

Climax

Aubrey, Iris' man, dies on 9/11.

Foreshadowing

Melody's ceremony is foreshadowed by the dress that was made for her mother.

Understatement

Aubrey's help was understated, as he died and the void was great.

Allusions

The reader might discern allusions to other deterministic works, such as Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts.

Imagery

The image of Melody walking down the stairs in her mothers dress at the ceremony is important.

Paradox

The main paradox in the story is if you decide your fate, or your parents do.

Parallelism

There is a parallel line between all the generations in the story.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

N/A

Personification

N/A

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