Genre
Coming-of-age novel
Setting and Context
The novel is set in working-class areas of Glasgow, Scotland in the early 1980s and early 1990s.
Narrator and Point of View
The story is told by a third-person limited omniscient narrator; the point of view switches between Shuggie, Agnes, Big Shug, Catherine, and Leek.
Tone and Mood
The tone is sentimental; the mood is bleak but has hopeful moments.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is Shuggie; antagonists include his mother, father, brother, sister, other children, and men his mother gets involved with.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is that Shuggie feels responsible for saving his mother, whose alcoholism is ruining her and Shuggie's lives.
Climax
The novel reaches its climax when Agnes dies of alcoholism and Shuggie accepts that he cannot save her.
Foreshadowing
Agnes's decision to light her bedroom on fire foreshadows her self-destructive demise.
