The Country Husband Literary Elements

A realistic short story

The events of the story take place in Sandy Hill. Francis Weed returns home after a terrible accident in which his plane almost crashes. The man expects to get a warm welcome from his wife and children, but everything goes wrong.

The story is told by an omniscient narrator and told from the third point of view.

Tone is calm while mood and atmosphere of the story are depressing but intriguing.

Francis Weed is the protagonist and the antagonist of the story. Frank is a complex character whose personality encompasses positive as well as negative traits.

The major conflict of the story is person vs. self, for Frank’s obligations to his start bothering him. The man dreams about his lost freedom and wants to escape from responsibilities.

Frank’s decision to seek professional help is the climax of the story. As soon as he voices his secret, he is partially freed from his obsession. However, it is not clear whether he will manage to return to his old life fully.

Nine times out of ten, Francis would be greeted with affection, but toning the children are absorbed in their own antagonism.
This sentence shows that this evening is going to differ from the rest in the Weeds’ family.

He seized her and covered her lips with his, and she struggled but she didn’t have to struggle for long, because just then little Gertrude Flannery appeared from somewhere.
If Francis hadn’t been interrupted, he would have lost the last bits of self-control and raped the girl.

The story alludes to the Bible and World War II.

Imagery is used to show what Francis really feels and thinks about his life. It is also used to describe “the ideal neighborhood” the Weed live in.

People who did not know the Flannerys concluded from Gertrude’s behavior that she was a child of a bitterly divided family, where drunken quarrels were the rules. The paradox was in the fact that the girl’s ragged clothing was “her own triumph over her mother’s struggle to dress her warmly and neatly.”

He washed his body, shaved his jaw, drank his coffee, and missed the seventy-thirty-one.
Repetition of pronoun his helps to show that is it his daily routine. The last part, which doesn’t rhyme with the first part of the sentence, shows that missing a train is an unplanned event.

If you would call Charlie Bell – I know he is indebted to you and say a good word for the kid, I think Charlie would - … A good word is metonymy which stands for recommendations.
He puts off his cowboy hat, gloves, and fringed jacket, unbuckles the belt studded with gold and rubies, the silver bullets and holsters, slips off suspenders, his checked shirt, and Levi’s…Levi’s is synecdoche which stands for jeans.

The photograph of his four children laughing into the camera on the beach at Gay Head reproached him.