Before Night Falls Literary Elements

Before Night Falls Literary Elements

Genre

Autobiography

Setting and Context

Set in the 1940s in the context of the harsh environment of Cuba even after Castro became president in 1959.

Narrator and Point of View

First-person narrative

Tone and Mood

The tone is tense, and the mood is buoyant.

Protagonist and Antagonist

The central character is Arenas.

Major Conflict

The main conflict is when Arenas discovers that he is gay and the government under Castro does not tolerate homosexuals.

Climax

The climax comes when Arenas' aunt betrays him by informing the government that he is gay.

Foreshadowing

His aunt's betrayal foreshadows Arenas' imprisonment, who wished to see him behind bars.

Understatement

The government’s brutality towards homosexuals is understated.

Allusions

The story alludes to government brutality towards gays.

Imagery

The rape incident in the cell where Male guards sexually molest arenas depicts sight imagery to help readers see the brutality of the prison warders.

Paradox

The primary paradox is that when Arenas is arrested, he is later beaten and raped by the guards in prison. The reader finds it satirical that the guards protecting the interests of a government against gays are themselves, homosexuals.

Parallelism

N/A

Metonymy and Synecdoche

N/A

Personification

Prison is incarnated as brutal.

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