Genre
Non-fiction and Ethics
Setting and Context
The 2000s, post-The Great Recession epoch
Narrator and Point of View
Jim Wallis employs both third-person and first-person voices (us, we) throughout the text.
Tone and Mood
Ethical, moralist, thoughtful, religious, rousing, philosophical
Protagonist and Antagonist
“We” are the protagonists. Idolatry and lacking ethics the economy are the non-human antagonists.
Major Conflict
Erosion of morality in the contemporary business world has resulted in social-economic crises.
Climax
Wallis’ proposed climax: Society-wide moral recovery that would positively alter the economy.
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
Wallis observes that capitalist businesses today have underestimated the significance of social entrepreneurship because their holy grail is profits.
Allusions
Wallis alludes to Gandhi's philosophy, the Bible, economics, and historical occurrences such as the Holocaust.
Imagery
The imagery of the "2008-2009 economic crisis" is central to the author's key argument concerning the role of morality in the economy.
Unethical practices are rampant in the market today.
Paradox
The media, through appealing advertisements, encourages vices such as greed that fuel consumerism through covert, paradoxical messages such as "Greed is good." Yet, the media would be expected to denounce and discourage such vices.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
"Wall Street" denotes the corporate world and the big companies that run it. The "invisible hand" represents market dynamics beyond the market players' swaying.
Personification
The market is personified. “Bad apples” have been personified to represent bad leadership.
