The Wednesday Wars Literary Elements

Historical fiction

The action takes place during the Vietnam War, more precisely between 1967 and 1968 in a small town on Long Island.

The action in the novel is told from the perspective of a first-person subjective point of view.

The tone and mood are violent.

The protagonist is Holling while the antagonist is the Vietnam War.

The major conflict in the novel is between reality and perception.

The novel reaches its climax when Hollan stands up against his teacher for the first time and demands to be respected.

In the first chapter, Holling tells his mother about his fears concerning one of his teachers. The mother is quick to dismiss her son's fears and tries to change the subject. This instance is used to foreshadow the later scenes when Holling will be ignored by his parents who refuse to believe what he is telling them.

Holling thinks with all his might that his teacher, Baker, is trying to kill him or otherwise harm him. This is presented as an extremely serious matter in the beginning but it is later proven that it is just an understatement because the teacher is not trying to kill him.

In the first chapter of the novel, Holling describes his house and focuses his attention on describing a grand piano that his parents bought and put in their living room but yet which no one is allowed to touch. In fact, as Holling points out, no one in the family even knows how to play the instrument. The piano is used here as an allusion Holling makes towards the idea that for his parents, appearances are more important than reality and that they will do everything in their power to protect those appearances.

One of the most important images in the novel is that of the Perfect House, or rather the house where Holling lives together with his parents. At the beginning of the novel, the house is portrayed as being in a perfect state and is often compared with the rest of the buildings and even with the sidewalk. As the novel progresses, this image changes as well until the house becomes a ruin. The house mirrors the state of the family and because of this, it is an extremely important image in the novel.

N/A

The main character, Holling, draws a parallel between himself and the character of his favourite book, Treasure Island. Holling would like to be like the protagonist in the book but he realizes he is nothing like that. Because of this, he is often criticizing himself and wishing he could be braver and more daring. This parallel has the purpose here of characterizing the main character and also to show his development.

The term house is used in the novel as a general term to make reference to the family unit.

We have a personification in the sentence "the yard was threatening, screaming at me and promising awful things".