Genre
Science fiction
Setting and Context
The events take place in 1986 in Ecuador and on the imagined island Santa Rosalia in the Galápagos Islands.
Narrator and Point of View
The story is told in the first person. The narrator is a ghost of Leon Trout. Storylines are intertwined and the narration is composed in a non-standard way.
Tone and Mood
The narrator Leon Trout covers the world of a distant future, and shows in many details the present, which slowly reveals to the reader the whole confused picture of what is happening. The tone and mood are depressing as the entire plot is reduced to the end of the world, apocalypse, after which humanity is destined to evolve and won’t resemble today’s world in one million years. But at the same time the author sees in it more positive than negative.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The novel does not contain a protagonist in a traditional view, but the narrator Leon Trout might be considered a protagonist, from whose respective the events are described. The antagonists are people, who helped technical progress to develop, which in turn destroyed humanity.
Major Conflict
The novel is filled with different kinds of conflicts, including a conflict of evolution and religion, of technical progress and creativity, of brain (which symbolizes common sense) and soul (which symbolizes feelings and compassion).
Climax
The climax happens when “Bahia de Darwin” sails off Ecuador and sails to Santa Rosalia, the island which will become the cradle of newly evolved human beings.
Foreshadowing
The novel is deprived of vague foreshadowings, as in the very first chapter the author says that a world catastrophe is inevitable and only a few people will survive.
Understatement
Though the author seems to be very disappointed in people, he still believes in their good nature. Time after time the place of love pops up in the plot, but it is very understated and is proof of the author’s strong lack of faith.
Allusions
The story alludes to Darwin and his writings on evolution.
Imagery
Descriptions of characters and vivid account of events are the main images of the novel.
Paradox
Paradoxal is the idea that the more people think and develop their brains, the more problems arise.
Parallelism
The novel is developed in two parallels: events taking place in 1986 and in 1001986.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
“Mandarax,” a machine used to translate from one language to another, is the most important personification of the novel. This device personifies technical progress, which in the end has no sense, as it is unable to help people on the island.
