What We All Long For Literary Elements

Urban fiction / Domestic Fiction

Set in modern-day Toronto

Third-person narration and also narrated in first-person from Quy’s perspective.

Hopeful and Poignant

The protagonists are Tuyen, Carla, Oku, Jackie, and Quy. The antagonist is unresolved familial and identity issues and being a victim of circumstance.

The conflict is in the interconnected lives of the young adults in their 20s grappling with loss, identity, and a sense of belonging whilst limited by their locality. The intersectionality in their identities renders their experiences unique to each yet the same in terms of being victims of circumstance.

The climax takes place when Quy is assaulted by Jamal who alongside his friend steals the family BMW car. Quy was waiting outside his parent’s home to surprise his sibling Binh and finally reunite.

"A yellow mote of sand dreams in the polyp’s eye; the coral needs this pain."

This quotation foreshadows the characters’ struggles in protecting what they hold dear or long for by reconciling the painful transition it requires.

N/A

The novel refers to Toronto’s cityscape to offer a sense of place in conveying the interpersonal relationships and conflicts of the key characters.

“Rain had fallen the night before, but today the sun lit the studio, and the clutter of wood, canvasses, paper, and the general debris that Tuyen considered to be the materials of her art. Tuyen looked out of her window facing the alleyway. Overflowing garbage cans and a broken chair rested against the wall of the building opposite hers. The graffiti crew who lived on the upper floors there had painted a large red grinning pig on the wall. She hadn’t noticed the chair there before and examined it from above, thinking of what she could make with it.”

Jamal and Quy are victims of circumstance as they were forced to grow up fast and no fully experience their childhood innocence. However, their adulthood is shaped around juvenile self-indulgence since they allow their victimhood to justify their lack of accountability, particularly for Jamal.

“What happened next? What happened next happened.”

“They all loved going to the railway tracks with a twelve-pack, some ganja, and a boombox.”

“The awning downstairs squealed. The light from a clouded sun had already filled the apartment.”