Desert Solitaire Literary Elements

Desert Solitaire Literary Elements

Genre

Nonfiction; Autobiographical nature journal

Setting and Context

The book is set from 1956 to 1957.

Narrator and Point of View

First-person point of view

Tone and Mood

The tone and mood are nonaligned.

Protagonist and Antagonist

Edward Abbey is the central character and narrator.

Major Conflict

The major conflict is that the influx in the human population started influencing the migration patterns of animals in the park. Similarly, the increased population of human beings exerted pressure on natural resources, which led to the distinction of some specifies of flora and fauna.

Climax

The climax is the realization that competition for natural resources due to the influx in the human population creates an imbalance in the ecosystem.

Foreshadowing

The influx of the human population into protected areas foreshadowed the disturbance of migration paths of wildlife.

Understatement

Human impact on fauna and flora is understated in the text. Besides the disturbance of animals' way of life, the competition for natural resources results in the extinction of certain species from the ecosystem.

Allusions

The story alludes to the impact of human activities on wildlife.

Imagery

The description of the parks and nature by the narrator depicts sight imagery. The narrator describes the beauty of the parks before and after human interference.

Paradox

The major paradox is that the natural environment is supposed to be conserved and protected by human beings. Ironically, instead of conserving the protected areas, human beings encroach into parks and pollute the environment, disturbing the lives of animals and plants.

Parallelism

There is parallelism between the conservation of natural parks and daily human activities.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

Flora and fauna is a metonymy for the beauty of nature, animals and plants.

Personification

N/A

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