Genre
Philosophical essay
Setting and Context
Because this is a philosophical essay, there is no setting mentioned here.
Narrator and Point of View
The ideas in the philosophical essay are presented from the perspective of a first-person subjective point of view.
Tone and Mood
The tone and mood is a neutral one.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is the philosopher and the antagonist is represented as being the normal population which does has no interest whatsoever in finding the truth.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is an internal one and is presented as being between the need to find out the truth and the desire to fit in with the rest of society.
Climax
The essay reaches its climax when the narrator claims that there is no God and the only true divinity is the concept of idea.
Foreshadowing
The way in which the narrator talks about those who are uninterested in philosophy at the beginning of the essay foreshadows the way in which the same group of people will be compared with animals at the end of the essay.
Understatement
At the begining of the essay, the narrator claims that there is a big difference between impressions and ideas. This is however an understatement because towards the end the narrator agrees that the two terms have the same meaning.
Allusions
The main allusion we find here is the idea humans and animals are extremely similar.
Imagery
The most important image in the essay appears towards the middle of the writing when the narrator finds himself in an extensive library. This image is an important one because it highlights the importance of knowledge.
Paradox
N/A
Parallelism
The narrator draws a parallel between the ancient philosophical ideas and the new philosophical ideas. This parallel is used to transmit the idea that modern philosophy is better than the ancient one.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Books are used here as a general term to make reference to the idea of knowledge.
Personification
We have a personification in the sentence "the trees watched everyone in the clearing".
