Argonauts of the Western Pacific Literary Elements

Non-fiction, ethnographical

Papua New Guinea, in the early 1900s where the ethnographer sails to Papua New Guinea to study the natives there.

The narrator is Malinowski in the first person. He holds an unbiased view about the Kula who he is studying.

The mood is suspenseful as the reader wants to learn about the culture of the Kula whereas the tone is an excited one where the narrator is very excited by the culture of the Kula.

Since the book is an ethnographical study of the peoples of Papua New Guinea, there are no protagonists or antagonists.

The major conflict in the novel is the quest of the ethnographer while he seeks to learn the Kula culture.

The climax is reached when the ethnographer fully understands the culture of the Kula politically, economically and socially.

A foreshadowing of the events of the book by the narrator when he docks at Papua New Guinea. There, at the start of the book, he foreshadows his experience and the things he will learn about the Kula. This is achieved at the later chapters of the book where he describes the culture of the Kula.

When the narrator first met the Trobriands, he remarks that the finer looking people were treated with deference by the other people. This is an understatement because they are worshipped by their subjects who kneel when they sit and sit and bow when their leaders stand.

N/A

The narrator achieves imagery in his description of the East Papuans . He describes them as, ' . . . generally smaller, with lighter colored frizzly, haired faces.'

There is a paradox where the narrator claims that the geography of Papua New Guinea both attracted and discouraged the migrants to the country. this is paradoxical because two opposite feeling of encouragement and discouragement are associated with travel to the country of Papua New Guinea.

The narrator builds a parallel between how the Europeans hold onto their heirlooms for a life time and then pass them to the future generations to how the Papuans held their heirlooms for only a short period of time and often lent them and used them as articles of trade.

N/A

The narrator personifies the canoes by saying that they held threatening dangers and were full of living hopes and desires. The canoes have been given feelings that are felt by human beings.