The Short Fiction of Nalo Hopkinson Literary Elements

Short fiction.

“Old Habits” is set in “ghost malls.” “The Glass Bottle Trick” is set in a mysterious, ghost-hosting house.

“Old Habits” is narrated by a male ghost using the first person voice. "The Glass Bottle Trick" is told by a third-person narrator.

The tone in "Old Habits" is nostalgic, whereas the mood is supernatural. In "The Glass Bottle Trick," the tone is frightful, and the mood is enigmatic.

In "The Glass Bottle Trick," Beatrice Powell is the protagonist, whereas Samuel is the antagonist. In "Old Habits," the ghosts are protagonists; antagonists include the security guards who contributed directly to the deaths of some ghosts, such as Black Anchor's death.

The main conflict in “The Glass Bottle Trick” relates to Beatrice’s discovery of the secret that lies in Samuel’s “Glass Bottle Trick.”

In “Old Habits,” the conflict relates to the ghosts’ attempts to overcome the tragedies inherent in their lives as ghosts.

The climax in “The Glass Bottle Secret” occurs when Beatrice encounters Samuel’s “duppy wives.”
In "Old Habits," the climax occurs when the narrator encounters the "glass, steel door."

The narrator in "Old Habits" foreshadows another death which the ghosts are likely to experience.

In "The Glass Bottle Trick," Beatrice's disruption of Samuel's bottle is a foreshadow of the secrets that she would unearth about Samuel's part deeds of murdering his pregnant spouses.

In “The Glass Bottle Trick,” Samuel understates the significance of education to discourage Beatrice from pursuing her studies. Samuel believes that women like Beatrice are not meant to study.

In "Old Habits," the narrator employs an understatement when he describes the ghosts' re-dying as "precious," yet death is scary and would not be treasured even by ghosts who love living.

“Old Habits” alludes to the mysticism of life in the underworld.

“The Glass Bottle Trick” alludes to superstition.

“Old Habits” provides the imageries of ghosts and the habits which they indulge in. The habits are carried on from their lives before death.

"The Glass Bottle Trick" uses the imagery of Samuels skin color (black) to underscore the consequences of racism.

In "Old Habits," it is paradoxical that a dead narrator can recount a story in the same way that a living narrator would.

In "The Glass Bottle Trick," Samuel's act of equating Beatrice's paleness to beauty is a paradox that amplifies his loathing for his blackness.

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The ghosts in "Old Habits" are personified because they engage in habits that are similar to those of extant individuals.

The bottles, “The Glass Bottle Trick,” are a personification of Samuel’s dead wives’ spirits.