When It Happens Literary Elements

When It Happens Literary Elements

Genre

Dystopian fiction

Setting and Context

Set in 1969 in a fictional town

Narrator and Point of View

Third-person narrative

Tone and Mood

The tone is ardent, and the mood is tense.

Protagonist and Antagonist

The main character is Mrs. Burridge. The antagonist is not mentioned.

Major Conflict

There is a major conflict between Mrs. Burridge and her husband, Frank. Frank is no longer romantic, and his ability to protect his wife is declining.

Climax

The climax comes when Mrs. Burridge goes upstairs and starts to daydream. In her dream, she hides Frank’s shotgun to protect herself while running away from the apocalypse.

Foreshadowing

The couple’s boredom is foreshadowed by isolation.

Understatement

Frank understates the impact of the apocalypse in the event it occurs.

Allusions

N/A

Imagery

The author depicts a sense of sight to readers when she describes the daily routine of Mrs. Burridge. For instance, she wakes up every morning to cane food and looks at the horizon to see if a cloud of smoke is coming from there.

Paradox

The main paradox is that Frank is not worried about him not being romantic. According to Frank, they are aging and should focus on other important things as long as they are happy.

Parallelism

There is a parallelism between Mrs. Burridge’s thought that she has wasted time in her life and her husband’s lack of romance.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The apocalypse is a metonymy for misfortune and doom.

Personification

N/A

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