My World of the Unknown Literary Elements

My World of the Unknown Literary Elements

Genre

Short stories

Setting and Context

The stories are set in the Islamic settings/households.

Narrator and Point of View

“Distant view of the Minaret”: Third person omniscient narrator
"Telephone Call": First-person narrator

Tone and Mood

"Distant view of the Minaret": Discontentment and fulfillment.
“Telephone Call”: Lonesomeness, uncertainty, and resignation.

Protagonist and Antagonist

“Distant view of the Minaret”: The protagonist is the unsatisfied wife. The wife’s husband is the antagonist. “Telephone Call”: The protagonist is a widow. Death is the antagonist.

Major Conflict

“Distant view of the Minaret”: The husband’s unwillingness to quench his wife’s sexual desires.
“Telephone Call”: The widow’s emptiness and lonesomeness in the aftermath of bereavement.

Climax

"Distant view of the Minaret": The protagonist experiences an anti-climax when her husband does not offer her sexual fulfillment.
“Telephone Call”: The protagonist is weathering difficult moments after the death of her spouse: the moments are equivalent to an anti-climax.

Foreshadowing

“Distant view of the Minaret”: The husband’s demise is foreshadowed when the wife discerns “the odour of death.”

“Telephone Call”: The widow foreshadows her death.

Understatement

“Distant view of the Minaret”: The husband understates his wife’s request for more intimacy when he equates them to madness: “Are you mad, woman? Do you want to kill me?”
“Telephone Call”:

Allusions

“Distant view of the Minaret”: The minaret is an allusion to the Islamic religion.
"Telephone Call" alludes to Islamic religion through the mention of the prophet and practices such as dawn prayers and "forty days after death."

Imagery

"Distant view of the Minaret": The husband and wife are disconnected in the course of the lovemaking, which makes concurrent fulfillment impossibility.
“Telephone Call”: The widow’s sleeplessness is an indicator of lack of peace and depression.
Muhammed’s demise devastated Muslims.

Paradox

“Distant view of the Minaret”: The unsatisfied wife blames herself although her husband is to blame because he does not intend to satisfy her.

Parallelism

N/A

Metonymy and Synecdoche

“Distant view of the Minaret”: ‘Flush’ denotes mortification. Kanaka represents a coffee pot.
“Telephone Call”: “Shahadha” denotes Islamic doctrine.

Personification

“Telephone Call”: Silence is personified: “silence that speaks of memories.”

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