Where the Heart Is Literary Elements

A novel

At first the story begins in Tennessee, where Novalee and her boyfriend decide to move to California. Then the story continues in Sequoyah, where Novalee lives with her daughter and friends

This novel is retold in the third-person.

This novel has a dramatic mood, because the main heroine has many difficulties: her mother and boyfriend left Novalee, she is seventeen, and she is pregnant.

The main protagonist is Novalee Nation. The main antagonist is Willy Jack Pickens

The main conflict happens between Novalee and Willy Jack. Novalee’s boyfriend leaves a pregnant girl alone in Sequoyah and runs away. But at the end of the novel Will Jack will regret that he treated Novalee and his daughter badly.

The climax happens when Novalee builds a new house for her and her daughter after the devastating storm in Sequoyah. Here, Novalee realizes that her heart belongs to this amazing place.

The image of the pregnant, abandoned and seventeen-year-old Novalee foreshadows that this novel is about her unhappy fate, difficulties, and obstacles, which conspire to destroy her life.

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This novel alludes to some real-life geographical positions of the USA such as Tennessee, Sequoyah, Oklahoma, and California.

Used in descriptions of natural phenomena, like tornados

The main paradox is behavior of Novalee Nation. She is pregnant and abandoned. She doesn’t have money, a dwelling, or friends. But Novalee doesn’t worry over this situation. Other girls would like to break down and commit suicide, or resort to desperate measures to survive.

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