Genre
Pictured book (Children’s Literature)
Setting and Context
Set in 1978 in South Downs, England.
Narrator and Point of View
Third-person narrative
Tone and Mood
The tone is woeful because the narrator is aggrieved when he finds a block of melted ice instead of Snowman. The mood is melancholic because the narrator ends up sad after realizing he will not have another adventurous night. After all, the Snowman is no more.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is a young unnamed boy. The antagonist is not mentioned.
Major Conflict
The main conflict is when the boy wakes up and finds the Snowman has melted. The boy grieves, and he blames himself for the disappearance of Snowman.
Climax
The climax comes when the snowball transforms into Snowman and gets life. The Snowman and the narrator get into an adventure for the entire night, an experience he will never forget.
Foreshadowing
The failure of Snowman to ask the narrator to put him inside the freezer foreshadows his melting in the morning.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The novel’s title The Snowman alludes to European winter celebrations.
Imagery
When the narrator looks outside at night through his window, he sees Snowman coming to life and waving at him. The narrator goes outside and brings the Snowman inside the house for a tour. They move from one room to the other, finishing their tour at the kitchen where they eat, and the Snowman washes utensils. Consequently, this description shows readers what is happening inside the house while the narrator's parents are asleep.
Paradox
The main irony is that the narrator is looking forward to having an adventurous day with Snowman, but he finds melted snow instead of the man he had an interactive session with throughout the night.
Parallelism
There is a deliberate parallelism between the young boy’s inspiration and his mother to emphasize the extent to which the boy is creative and determined.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
Snowman is personified as a human being when he interacts with the narrator.
