Genre
Science fiction short story
Setting and Context
The story takes place in a future society, where mutants foresee crime before it occurs and people can travel to other planets.
Narrator and Point of View
The third person narration
Tone and Mood
The tone of the story is intense, with a lot of adventures, the mood is controversial – the reader sympathizes with Anderton when he is accused in intention of murder. At the same time he got what he deserved, because his Precrime system was inhuman.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist of the story is Anderton, the Police Commisioner, who founded the Precrime unit; the antagonist is Leopold Kaplan, the former general who wanted to destroy the Precrime system and get back his authority.
Major Conflict
Major Conflict stands in contradiction of choice between private freedoms and public security.
Climax
The climax happens when Anderton kills Kaplan and proves that the precog system didn’t fail.
Foreshadowing
The story foreshadows the future of the society in which the person’s privacy means nothing.
Understatement
The fear is the greatest motif of our actions and the reason of our problems – people are afraid to be responsible for their lives that is why they choose the strong one to take all the decisions instead of them. That is how one person gets the authority and right to decide people fortunes.
Allusions
N/A
Imagery
With the imegery the author portrays future, which is quite different to our reality
Paradox
The Precrime system which is supposed to be used “for social good” may be used to harm the members of society.
Parallelism
What is more important – the privacy freedom or public security? It is a rhetoric question, without an effective punitive system the society the crime level will rise, but the human rights also should be appreciated and it is incomprehensible to send people to jail because of their thoughts. The best decision here is to strike a happy medium.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The author uses metonymy and synecdoche to underline how the characters feel about different events and how they treat themselves and each other: “treasured monkeys”, “dull minds”, “ call us a protective society”.
Personification
N/A
