Genre
Historical Fiction / Utopian Fiction
Setting and Context
Set in the United States during the 19th-century.
Narrator and Point of View
The novel is majorly narrated in third-person omniscience.
Tone and Mood
Intense, Affected, Impassioned
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is Maryna Zalezowska while the antagonist is the hurdles towards achieving the American dream.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is the pursuit of the American dream which seems elusive to the protagonist once she sets up a utopian society. Through reinvention and romanticism, Maryna embarks on a path of fame and prosperity in theater acting that gradually corrupts her true essence.
Climax
The climax occurs when Maryna leaves the commune for San Francisco after the community begins to fail.
Foreshadowing
The failed commune set up in Poland foreshadows the unsustainability of their utopian community in America.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The novel alludes to the story of the Polish actress Helena Modrzejewska who emigrated to America and pursued a successful stage career.
Imagery
“The high mountains now were still covered with snow—winters are long and harsh in the Tatras—but as the wagon passed along green meadows carpeted with purple crocuses, purple with a dash of dark blue”
Paradox
The Poles leave their homeland to seek a utopian lifestyle but find the same restraints in America that hindered their vision in Poland.
Parallelism
There is a parallel drawn between Poland and the United States in how both nations and also its people hold the idea of a higher destiny.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“On the Fourth of July, they listened to vehement oratory and music and watched the parading and the fireworks…”
Fourth of July is a synecdoche for U.S. Independence Day
Personification
“The wind had risen, and the silent forest seemed to thrum and whisper.”
