Genre
Collection of short stories.
Setting and Context
The action in the story "Soldier's Joy" takes place in the soldier's home over the course of a few hours.
Narrator and Point of View
The action in the stories is told from the perspective of a third-person objective point of view.
Tone and Mood
The tone and mood used in the stories is a neutral one.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist in "Soldier's Joy" is presented as being a life full of excitement while the antagonist is presented as being a monotonous life.
Major Conflict
The major conflict in "Our story begins" is between complacency and motivation.
Climax
The story "Say yes" reaches its climax when the narrator admits that he is unable to completely understand his wife.
Foreshadowing
The violent events described in the beginning of "Soldier's Joy" foreshadow the soldier's tragic ending.
Understatement
The main understatement in "Say yes" is the idea that the couple described in the story is happy. Towards the middle of "Say yes" it is proven that this is an understatement.
Allusions
The main allusion we find in the story "Say yes" is the idea that the only people to be blamed for the destruction of a marriage are the wife and husband who did not put in enough effort.
Imagery
N/A
Paradox
We find a paradoxical idea in the story "Soldier's Joy" which presents the life of a soldier returning home after serving in the Vietnam War. What is paradoxical in this story is the way in which the soldier is unable to adapt to a normal life while he had no troubles adapting to the dangerous life on the battlefield.
Parallelism
A parallel is drawn between the driver in the story and "Our story begins". The parallel is used here to show how minor decisions can affect a person's life tremendously.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The term silence is used in the story "Say yes" to make reference to the
Personification
We have a personification in "Our story begins" in the line "the city came to life".
