A Problem From Hell Literary Elements

Non-fiction (A Human Rights Book)

The book is set between 1914 and 1994 to explore the account of genocides in the 20th century.

Dull, indignant, gloomy, depressing

Dull, indignant, gloomy, depressing

The protagonists of the book are Raphael Lemkin, President Ronald Reagan and President Bill Clinton.

The major conflict in the book is when presidents Bill Clinton and Reagan turned a blind eye to the global genocides that were taking place in Armenia, Germany and Rwanda.

The climax comes when the author reveals that America's presidents Bush and Reagan were behind the massive killings in Iraq. Consequently, to reader concludes that whenever America is involved in a crisis outside America, it always has a hidden agenda.

Lemkin’s fight against anti-Semitism prefigured the establishment of the 1948 United Nations’ conference on deterrence and penalty of the felony of genocide.

America’s voiceless gesture towards genocides in Rwanda, Germany and Armenia is understated. In most cases, America only intervenes in places that it has self interest in.

The story alludes to the negative impacts of massive killings in countries like Armenia, Rwanda and Germany.

The author combined the imageries of sight, smell, and touch to aid readers to have a feeling of what happened during the genocides described in the book. For instance, the author writes, "capture the crime in a word that connoted something truly unique and evil," and also calls it the "ultimate crime."

The main paradox alluded to in the book is that of America's helping hand. When terrorists attacked the U.S, many nations came to its aid. However, America showed little interest in preventing the genocides in Rwanda, Armenia and Germany in the early years.

The Holocaust in Germany paralleled the genocides in Armenia and Rwanda.

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Genocide and the Holocaust are personified as monsters that claimed innocent lives.