The Committed Literary Elements

The Committed Literary Elements

Genre

Thriller

Setting and Context

Paris in the early 1980s.

Narrator and Point of View

The story is told from the first-person point of view of the Sympathizer, who is the narrator of the novel.

Tone and Mood

Violent, brooding, solemn, oppressive, and scheming.

Protagonist and Antagonist

Sympathizer (protagonist); The Commandant (antagonist).

Major Conflict

Sympathizer's attempts to assimilate in a new country, deal with the people in the country, and make a living for himself.

Climax

When Sympathizer's re-education is completed.

Foreshadowing

The rape foreshadows what will happen in the mind of the narrator.

Understatement

The extent to which Sympathizer is degraded by his profession is understated through sections of the novel.

Allusions

To the history and culture of the United States, France, Vietnam, religions of the world, popular culture (other novels, including those of Fyodor Dostoevsky, and films), as well as the geography of France.

Imagery

As Sympathizer's life grows more dark, more intense imagery surrounding drug use is used.

Paradox

Sympathizer is an intelligent man but decides to sell drugs, a profession typically for those with lower-than-average IQs.

Parallelism

The story of many immigrants from Vietnam are paralleled with each other: their struggle to make money and fit in and their experiences in their old and new countries.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

n/a

Personification

France is personified in the novel.

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