The Art of Racing in the Rain Literary Elements

Fiction

The action begins at the beginning of the 1990s and lasts for a period of ten years. The story is set in Settle and occasionally moves around the state of Washington.

The events are narrated from the first-person subjective point of view of a dog named Enzo.

Playful, curious, tender, sentimental, and sincere

The protagonists are Denny and Enzo and the antagonists are Eve’s parents, Maxwell and Trish. Maxwell is the primary and more malevolent antagonist. Annika is a secondary antagonist because of her pivotal role in framing Denny for sexual assault.

The major conflict for Enzo is whether or not he is ready to be a human being. The major conflict for Denny is the decision whether he will fight for custody of his daughter, or give up his claim to custody and assure that his reputation and racing career remain intact.

The story reaches its climax when Denny's criminal trial comes to a decision. The falling action is initiated when Annika recants her accusations and Denny's charges are dropped.

An example of foreshadowing occurs during Denny's first meeting with Mark Fein, when Mark asks him if he is a sex offender. Denny, of course, answers no, but the question foreshadows the consequences of Denny's sordid encounter with Annika after their long drive back to Seattle.

When Enzo says that the only thing that differentiates him from humans is his lack of thumbs, he humorously understates the differences in the conditions of humans and other animals. Of course, Enzo's mind works differently than other dogs, but still, he cannot communicate with language like humans do. He cannot express himself or relate to the human condition because he has no experience being a human. Being a human is about much more than having thumbs, but Enzo's proposal suggests otherwise. The understatement is even funnier because of how it directly contradicts Enzo's own frustration about not being able to communicate with language.

Enzo alludes to the Iliad, the Christian bible, and Oedipus Rex all in one comparison when he refers to Denny's role as the hero of the novel. He compares Denny to heroes with tragic flaws like Achilles, Samson, and Oedipus.

Nature imagery plays a significant role in the novel to forecast the mood of the situation. For example, at Denny Creek, the image of the rushing stream and the slick rocks creates suspense that leads up to Eve slipping and falling on the rocks. The rushing stream represents the unstoppable current of life and the inevitability that Eve would eventually have to face her diagnosis. Similarly, the treacherous conditions on the road home from the cabin with Annika represent the treacherous nature of Denny's contact with Annika and his proximity to danger in her presence.

Enzo is presented as having paradoxical ideas about death, life and his role in Denny’s life. It becomes clear that Enzo loves Denny dearly, but despite this, he wishes he could die, which if he was euthanized requires Denny's participation. The reason behind this is that Enzo believes that Denny’s life would be better if he were to die, because then Denny would not be forced to take care of an elderly dog. What Enzo eventually understands is that Denny loves him even if he has to take care of him constantly. This is why Enzo ultimately decides to die naturally.

A parallel can be drawn between the experience of racing and the idea of going through life capable of maneuvering around problems without going off track. Denny's philosophy of racing stresses the importance of knowing when to push the limits and when to take it slow in order to avoid getting into a serious accident. In life as well, it is important to know one’s limits and to be careful when pushing them so as not to destroy oneself.

Enzo adopts the term "the zebra" to describe people's inner fears. He says late in the novel, "The zebra. It is not something outside of us. The zebra is something inside of us. Our fears. Our own self-destructive nature," (264). He goes on to simply use the word "zebra" to refer to all of these concepts, an example of metonymy.

Cars are often personified in the way they are described as sounding. Cars are said to squeal or purr when really they're just machines.