The Shadow Line Literary Elements

The Shadow Line Literary Elements

Genre

novella, adventure

Setting and Context

Arabic coast, Bangkok, sea; beginning of the 20th century

Narrator and Point of View

Narrator: name not mention, possibly the writer; Point of view: first person

Tone and Mood

Tone: introspective, hopeful; Mood: determined

Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonist: the narrator is the main protagonist; Antagonist: the sea not working to the narrator's advantage

Major Conflict

The narrator gets a position as the captain of a ship.

Climax

After a storm, the ship starts moving in a fast pace and things are looking positively.

Foreshadowing

Captain Giles foreshadows that the narrator will be met with a lot of trouble upon arriving to his ship.

Understatement

The narrator understates the danger of having a diseased Mr. Barns on the ship which leads most of the crew to become affected as well.

Allusions

"D'autre fois, calme plat, grand miroir
De mon desespoir."
-BAUDELAIRE

Imagery

Imagery of ships and sailing, sea and water

Paradox

N/A

Parallelism

"And but for those bits of land there was no speck on the sky, no speck on the water, no shape of vapour, no wisp of smoke, no sail, no boat, no stir of humanity, no sign of life, nothing!"

Metonymy and Synecdoche

N/A

Personification

Ships are personified: "She lay with her head to the westward."

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