Genre
Memoir
Setting and Context
The action takes place in the 21st century in Illinois and California.
Narrator and Point of View
The memoir is told from the perspective of a first-person subjective point of view.
Tone and Mood
The tone and mood can be characterized as depressing and desperate.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is Dave and his siblings while the antagonist is described as being the empty space left by the death of their parents.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is an internal one and is given by the desire to succeed in life and the problems which continue to arise at regular intervals.
Climax
The memoir reaches its climax when the main character comes to terms with his parents’ death.
Foreshadowing
The memoir opens with the narrator describing the death of his father. This description foreshadows the death of the mother which will later happen in the memoir.
Understatement
When the main character’s mother returns home after a visit to the hospital, the narrator claims that she was feeling better. This is an understatement because a few days later she dies from cancer.
Allusions
The main allusion we find in the memoir is the idea that the narrator has trouble
Imagery
One of the most important images is that of the mother having a nosebleed while sitting motionless in her bed. This image is important because it shows just how fragile human life really is and just how little control we have over what happens to us.
Paradox
N/A
Parallelism
A parallel is drawn between Eggers, the oldest, and his dead father. The two are extremely similar even though Eggers tries his best not to end up like his father. This parallel is used here to transmit the idea that it can be impossible to escape the influence of one’s parents.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Drugs are used in the memoir as a general term to make reference to unhealthy coping mechanisms.
Personification
We have a personification in the sentence “the empty road was our companion”.
