Under Fire Literary Elements

Under Fire Literary Elements

Genre

War novel

Setting and Context

The novel has been written in the context of World war 1.

Narrator and Point of View

The story has been narrated from the first-person point of view. Henri Barbusse has shared his own first hand experiences at the war front and what he witnessed at the trenches as a soldier.

Tone and Mood

violent, pessimistic, resentful

Protagonist and Antagonist

The soldiers are presented as the protagonist and the Generals are depicted as antagonists in the novel.

Major Conflict

The major conflict is how the men are killing their own fellow beings just because of the political leaders and generals who remain at the back and urge the soldiers to fight.

Climax

The climax comes when a soldier gets injured and is taken to the hospital where he gets to know about the hypocrisy of the generals and other staff at the hospital.

Foreshadowing

The death of the soldiers during the war foreshadows the death of those soldiers who are still fighting.

Understatement

futility and uselessness of war.

Allusions

allusions of Christ, war.

Imagery

The novel is replete with the images of war, bloodshed, guns, bullets and death.

Paradox

The generals urge the soldiers to fight at the battlefield while they themselves stay at the back or in their homes.

Parallelism

There is parallel description of war and everyday life.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

German and French Soldiers are represented as general human beings.

Personification

War is personified as something futile.

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