Genre
Children's Literature
Setting and Context
Set in 1995 in Wayside School
Narrator and Point of View
Third-person point of view
Tone and Mood
The tone is candid, and the mood is calm.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The central character is Louis, and the antagonist is Mr. Gorf.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is in the story "Pet Day" when students are asked to bring their pets to school. The pets' names are complicated, and the teacher gets confused because she cannot mention any of the names.
Climax
The story "Stupid" climax comes when Ron mobilizes his fellow students to stop Miss Nogard's habit of making them redo hefty revisions.
Foreshadowing
Miss Nogard's endless punishments foreshadow Ron's bold behavior.
Understatement
There is an understatement in “Stupid,” when Miss Nogard says that her students are friendly to her, but in reality, they hate her to death.
Allusions
n/a
Imagery
The author writes, “Elevators have been installed in Wayside School!... There are two elevators. One is blue. One is red. When you want to go up, you take the blue elevator." The imagery shows readers that the Wayside School is not an ordinary institution.
Paradox
The primary paradox is that the elevators in Wayside School only go in one direction. On the contrary, a normal functioning elevator should be able to go up and down.
Parallelism
n/a
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The pen is a metonymy for the written word and the power of knowledge.
Personification
Pets are personified when given human names and treated as people.
