Genre
Fiction, Short Story
Setting and Context
Set in an unspecified small village, the stories span the course of a day
Narrator and Point of View
Third-person unnamed narrator, which allows the reader to have no limits on the perspective of the short stories, and gives access to each character's individual thoughts and feelings.
Tone and Mood
The tone is quirky, moving from joyous to melancholic without warning. The mood is meditative and questioning.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Tamara and Mr Gillman are the protagonists. Society's pressure and demands are the antagonists.
Major Conflict
Each short story focuses on a character who has an individual conflict between their own identity and the way in which they feel society forces them to present themselves.
Climax
When the young lady discovers her violin case, and she is suddenly relieved of all the problems she had experienced with her confidence.
Foreshadowing
When Wanda pretends that being a mother is everything that she ever wanted, it is foreshadowing of the struggles that she will experience when she actually has a baby.
Understatement
At the beginning of the short stories, Tamara's difficulty with expressing herself is understated and is only truly revealed at the end when she wears the bright, extravagant clothes.
Allusions
The short stories allude to the pressure that is placed on each individual by our society, and the negative impacts such harsh expectations can bring.
Imagery
The imagery of only the harmful effects of ageing in the description of Mr Gillman, rather than the wonderful life experience has had.
Paradox
Mr Gillman purchases a bouquet of flowers in an attempt to win over his new daughter-in-law but fails to give them to her as he becomes distracted by a sudden sense of fame.
Parallelism
There is a parallel between the imaginary world that the unnamed old man creates for himself and the conflicted world that Tamara immerses herself into at the start of the short story.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
N/A
