Genre
Children's
Setting and Context
The story starts in a tiny village called the Village of the Fruitless Mountain.
Narrator and Point of View
The story is written from the third-person point of view and delivered by an omniscient narrator.
Tone and Mood
The tone is calm and reminiscent of the one that is usually used in fairytales, while the mood is exciting but slightly worrying at times.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Minly is the protagonist, while Green Tiger and Magistrate Tiger are the antagonists.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is person vs. self, for Minly has to realize that there are much important things than money.
Climax
The moment when the Jade Dragon is reunited with her child is the climax of the story.
Foreshadowing
The story of the Old Man of The Moon is foreshadowing because it talks about The City of Bright Moonlight and then Minli and the dragon travel to that city.
Understatement
“I will not let my son marry a grocer’s daughter!” he vowed. So, after he arrived at his guesthouse, the
The magistrate secretly ordered one of his servants to return to the grocer’s home and stab the girl with a knife. “That will take care of her,” he thought to himself.
Allusions
The novel alludes to the Forbidden City.
Imagery
The story is full of images, like king’s dwellings, or magic things, to stimulate children’s imagination.
Paradox
"You’re talking fish?" Minly is surprised to find out that a fish can talk. The paradox is that the girl believes in far stranger things.
Parallelism
“The villagers had to tramp in the mud, bending and stooping and planting day after day.” The use of gerunds is an example of grammatical parallel construction.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
The fish and the dragon can talk. This gives animals human characteristics.
