The One (The Selection) Literary Elements

The One (The Selection) Literary Elements

Genre

Romance, fiction

Setting and Context

The setting is in a fictional country named Illea at a time when the crown prince Maxon was tasked to select a wife from a group of young women.

Narrator and Point of View

The narrator is Lady America who is part of the group of young women that want to be picked as Maxon’s wife. Her point of view is that the king should stop being dictatorial towards his subjects.

Tone and Mood

The tone of the book is anxious for America is full of worry whether Maxon will pick her to be his queen. The mood of the book is an exciting one as all the ladies competing to be picked as queen are always doing impressive things to catch the eye and heart of Maxon.

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonists of the book are the people of Illea who want the country to be peaceful and who are harassed by a group of rebels. The antagonists of the book are the rebels who attack people because they want to destroy democracy.

Major Conflict

The major conflict of The One( The Selection) is the search of the wife of Maxon. There are ladies in the palace who are eligible and he is set to select one of them to be his wife and the future queen of Illea.

Climax

The climax is reached when Maxon realizes that America is the woman he loves and he chooses her to be his queen. Maxon ascends to the crown when his parents are murdered by the rebels.

Foreshadowing

The rebels that came to the palace to see Maxon and Lady America foreshadowed that she would be the next queen of Illea. This came to pass when she was proposed to by Maxon and they ascended to the throne.

Understatement

When the rebels attacked the palace for the first time, the guards told the ladies that it seemed like the rebels were not in a mood to fight then. This is an understatement of the situation where the palace which was where the royal family if Illea lived was attacked therefore an attack to the power of the monarchy.

Allusions

Biblical allusion to the leadership structure of Jesus and his disciples. August told Maxon that the southern rebels had convinced their disciples that the only way to get peace and fair share of the national wealth is to take it from the monarchy. The power structure of the rebels is similar to that of Jesus and his disciples.

Imagery

The description of the dress that Lady America wore to impress Maxon as, ‘The dress was a deep red, strapless and practically backless..’ The reader can picture how the dress looked from the description.

Paradox

The narrator says that in a photo of Kenna , she looked equally thrilled and exhausted. The expressions of those states are different therefore it is paradoxical that one can be the both at the same time.

Parallelism

A parallel is drawn between the current king of Illea and Maxon, the future king. Maxon is more loving towards his subject whereas his father is a dictator and very repulsive towards the local people.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

N/A

Personification

N/A

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