Genre
Non-fiction
Setting and Context
United States, 1950s
Narrator and Point of View
C. Wright Mills (first person)
Tone and Mood
Polemical
Protagonist and Antagonist
Classical social science (protagonist), Bureaucracy (antagonist)
Major Conflict
Classical social science vs. "grand theory" and "abstracted empiricism"; democracy vs. bureaucracy
Climax
Today, social science serves bureaucracy.
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
N/A
Imagery
Image of the trap; image of the file; image of bureaucracy; image of human diversity
Paradox
Reason was supposed to lead to freedom, but under bureaucracy, rationalization has led to less freedom
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
N/A
