Genre
Non-fiction
Setting and Context
The book describes the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961.
Narrator and Point of View
The report is written from the first-person point of view of Hannah Arendt.
Tone and Mood
Tone is focused and precise; mood is depressed and nerve-racking.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Adolf Eichmann is both the antagonist and the protagonist.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is individual vs. society. Will Eichmann admit his complicity in the crime of the Holocaust? Will this—or any "proof" of his complicity—help to explain how society could have gone so horribly astray?
Climax
The conclusion of the trial and Eichmann's execution.
Foreshadowing
As a historical report, Eichmann in Jerusalem has little foreshadowing.
Understatement
Allusions
The report alludes to the Nuremberg Trials, and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant.
