High Tide in Tucson Literary Elements

Collection of essays

Because this is a collection of essays, there is no setting mentioned here.

The ideas presented in the essays are told from the perspective of a first-person subjective point of view.

The tone and mood used here is neutral one.

The protagonist is the narrator and the antagonist is identified as being the various elements disturbing her peace.

The major conflict is an internal one and is between the narrator’s desire to explore the world and her need for a quiet life.

The essay “Life Without Go-Go Boots” reaches its climax when the narrator describes the moment in which she started to have more confidence in herself.

The title of the essay “How Mr. Dewey Decimal Saved My Life” foreshadows the way in which the narrator describes how she found her way in life.

In the essay “In Case You Ever Want to Go Home Again” the narrator claims that she can never return home. This is however an understatement when the narrator claims that it is her own choice that she does not return home.

One of the main allusion we find in the essay “Making Peace” is the idea that one cannot find true happiness unless a person leaves modern society behind.

The most important image in the “Making Peace” is the way in which the desert is described. This image is extremely important because it is the place where the main character finds peace. As such, the desert is presented here as a empty place, untouched by human perversion.

One of the main paradoxes is the way in which the narrator continues to return time and time again to the city even though she knows it will only bring her pain.

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The heat described in “Making Peace” is used here as a general way through which the narrator discusses the idea of going through hardships in life.

We have a personification in “Creation Stories” in the sentence “the trees along the road whispered to me.”