Linden Hills Literary Elements

Linden Hills Literary Elements

Genre

Novel

Setting and Context

Linden Hills

Narrator and Point of View

Third-person narrator

Tone and Mood

Critical, appalling, and mesmerizing

Protagonist and Antagonist

Willa: Protagonist. Luther: Antagonist.

Major Conflict

Willa’s odds of escaping Luther’s imprisonment and dehumanization.

Climax

The demise of Sinclair (Willa’s beloved son).

Foreshadowing

The scream in the exposition of the novel foreshadows Willa’s protracted agony.

Understatement

The humaneness of Willa's neighbors is understated when they do nothing to aid her when a fire breaks out. They are unneighbourly neighbors.

Allusions

Allusion to Martin Luther family through the name Luther.

Religious allusions such as Christmas.

Psychological allusions such as Norman’s encounters with pink creatures.

Imagery

Class divisions are pervasive in Linden Hills, and are underscored through visual descriptions and through allusions to Dante's Inferno.

Paradox

Luther's act of mistreating his family, especially his son, is paradoxical. His son does not evoke fatherly instinct in him.

Parallelism

Willa’s suffering is parallel to Willie Mason and Lester’s suffering.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

Linden Hills typifies the segregationist American dream.

Personification

N/A

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