Genre
Psychological Fiction
Setting and Context
The novel is set in contemporary Australia, primarily in a remote religious community in the Australian outback.
Narrator and Point of View
The novel is narrated from the first-person point of view of the protagonist.
Tone and Mood
The tone is contemplative and occasionally somber. The mood is serene, reflective, and tense.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is a middle-aged woman seeking solitude and spiritual refuge in a remote religious community. The antagonist is her struggle with grief and guilt.
Major Conflict
The protagonist's internal conflict revolves around the struggle to reconcile her feelings of isolation, grief, and guilt with her desire for spiritual refuge. The discovery of Sister Jenny's skeletal remains and the burial event highlight the intensity of this conflict.
Climax
The climax of the novel is marked by the discovery of Sister Jenny's skeletal remains.
Foreshadowing
The mouse plague foreshadows the emotional climax and the revelation of Sister Jenny's remains.
Understatement
"I thought of that creature, the size of a large child, lying there dead in her box.”
The protagonist refers to Sister Jenny's remains in an understated way of coping with the reality of death.
Allusions
The novel contains allusions to religious texts, practices, and figures, such as the “Lectio Divina” (divine reading) and references to Christian saints.
Imagery
"All of us stand around the open grave, heads bowed, the rain pattering down on our plastic coats... Afterwards we take turns to throw shovelfuls of earth down on the bones of Jenny"
The burial scene is rich in sensory detail, which evokes a somber mood.
Paradox
A paradox arises in the protagonist's desire for peace through isolation while being constantly drawn into the community's tensions and unresolved issues.
Parallelism
The repetition of her daily tasks, such as filling the birdbath or observing the religious services, parallels her internal struggle to find meaning and purpose in her new life.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N.A
Personification
"That big blade, gouging and ripping its way into our earth."
The excavator's blade is personified as "gouging" and "ripping."
