Tobacco Road Literary Elements

Tobacco Road Literary Elements

Genre

A novel

Setting and Context

The events in the story take place in rural Georgia, not far from Augusta city

Narrator and Point of View

Third-person narration

Tone and Mood

An ironic tone is prevalent in the story, with sentimental and religious elements

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist of the story is Jeeter Lester, a poor white who longs to have a farm but he doesn’t have money to realize his dream

Major Conflict

The major conflict stands in the contradiction between desire to do something and actual laziness about doing it, between realities and possibilities to change them

Climax

The climax happens when Ada and Jeeter have a fight with Sister Bessie, after which Bessie and Dude ride away. On this night, their house burns and they didn’t survive.

Foreshadowing

The poverty in which Lester’s family had been living for many years foreshadows that there is no chance that they can change the situation.

Understatement

In the story, the role of family and marriage is understated; the power of desire is understated as well in the story.

Allusions

The story alludes to the period of the Great Depression in the United States.

Imagery

see the imagery section

Paradox

The paradox of the story is that although Jeeter wanted to run a farm and grow plants, he did nothing but talk about it, and he was surprised why his situation didn’t change .

Parallelism

The story has parallels with cultural contrast and social stereotypes.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The author uses metonymy and synecdoche to highlight the important information in the utterance: “some of the older boys”, “take everything a man’s got”, “Them rich people up there in Augusta come down here".

Personification

The author uses personification in the depiction the nature: “The white Smoke of the broom-sedge fire coiled upward”, “the fall of darkness”.

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