Specimen Days Literary Elements

Novel, Short stories

New York- Industrial Revolution, 21st century, Future

In the Machine is narrated by Simon, the Children's Crusade is narrated by Cat, and Like Beauty is narrated by Simon.

In the Machine is a ghost story/historical fiction, the Children's Crusade is a noir thriller, and Like Beauty is a science fiction story. All the stories have a spiritual, metaphysical tone about them that becomes more apparent as connections between them are revealed.

Simon is a major protagonist for two of the stories.

All three of the short stories have major conflicts centering around the themes of identity, humanity, and alienation.

All three of the short stories culminate in the final story, set in the future, where Simon has become a robot in a futuristic new age.

In the first story, when Lucas is afraid of Simon's ghost living on in the machine, it is foreshadowing for the third story where he comes back alive as a spirit in a mechanical robot.

No notable instances.

The book alludes multiple times to Whitman's works, quoting them directly or using their themes.

The first story is very haunting and contains a lot of imagery about the cold logic of machines, as compared to human warmth.

In the first story, Simon is a ghost in a machine, which main character Lucas worries about; he does not want humankind to be overwhelmed by machinery, which eventually happens in the third story.

While Simon appears in the first book, he also appears in the third, a paradoxical reminder to the beginning of the story.

New York City plays a number of different roles in the novel and represents the quick transitions of human history, and yet how humankind undeniably remains the same despite all these changes.

The first story contains various instances of the personification of machines, ironically foreshadowing the third story.