I Must Betray You Literary Elements

Historical Fiction, Young Adult

Bucharest, Romania, 1989

The novel is told from the first-person perspective of Cristian Florsecu, a seventeen-year-old informer from Bucharest, Romania

Harsh descriptions of life in Bucharest create a foreboding, grim mood throughout the novel, and the narrative's focus on surveillance and fear creates a suspenseful, disillusioned tone.

Cristian Florsecu is the protagonist; the oppressive Romanian state under Nicolae Ceaușescu is the antagonist.

The major conflict is Cristian's attempt to maintain his integrity and safety while informing for the Securiate.

The story reaches its climax when Cristian escapes from custody and sees the Ceaușescus evacuate Bucharest.

When Cristian is first recruited as an informer, he states that he “could outwit the Securitate," not realizing that "sometimes in outwitting others, we accidentally
outwit ourselves." This statement, and others like it, foreshadows the violence Cristian and his family endure because of their role as informers, such as Bunu and Cici's deaths.

Listening to the reports from the Timișoara uprising, Cristian's father begins to speak and praise the protestors. Cristian remarks that "the tone and strength of his voice sounded so foreign. In hindsight, that makes sense." This observation foreshadows the revelation that Cristian's mother was an informer and that his father likely knew about it all along.

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The novel references Romanian cultural elements and key figures, primarily Dracula. The novel Dracula was written by Irish author Bram Stoker in 1897 about the Transylvanian vampire, Dracula. Characters throughout the text comment on the negative Romanian stereotypes associated with this text and also compare the reclusive, wealthy, and evil Nicolae Ceaușescu to the iconic villain.

The text also contextualizes the revolution by referencing major political and cultural world events, including the fall of the Berlin Wall and Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci's defection to the United States. The novel also sets its historical context by naming several of Nicolae Ceaușescu's contemporary political leaders, such as UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Silvia of Sweden, Indira Gandhi of India, Pope Paul VI of the Vatican, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Charles De Gaulle of France, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev.

To emphasize the restrictive nature of Ceaușescu's Romania and the allure of the Western world, the novel references American pop culture and products. For example, Cristian and Liliana watch the 1988 action film Die Hard, drink Coca-Cola, eat Twinkies, and listen to Bruce Springsteen. To emphasize Dan Van Dorn's separation from Romania, his room is decorated with American cultural ephemera, including posters for the rock singer Bon Jovi, memorabilia for the American football team the Dallas Cowboys, and the expensive basketball sneaker Air Jordans.

To emphasize his interest in Western thought, Bunu references famous philosophers and poets such as Socrates and Homer. Bunu also references the Italian writer Dante's epic poem The Inferno, in which the lowest circle of hell is reserved for betrayers.

The text uses highly poetic sensory imagery to evoke the hopelessness of Romania under Nicolae Ceaușescu's rule. Looking at the destroyed fields, Cristian remarks that Ceaușescu "had broken the soul of Romania and parched a beautiful country into an apocalyptic landscape of the lost."

Mundane yet soul-crushing problems like poor infrastructure are described in rich detail to emphasize the impact of the nation's negligence on the lives of its citizens. For example, while riding the bus to the library, Cristian remarks that “Service was too infrequent. There was no reliable schedule and never enough room. People clutched the railings on the bus stairs, preventing the doors from closing...Sometimes, the bus was so crowded that the back dragged, scraping and lapping the pavement.“

Cristian and Luca are forced to participate in a "mandatory volunteering" program.

Paradoxically, Cristian has to comply with authorities at several points to continue the revolution and overthrow the regime. For example, he submits to torture, kisses the portrait of Ceaușescu, bribes guards, and informs for the Secu.

Cristian condemns Cici's role as an informer, though she is far more successful in protecting their family and undermining the regime.

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Cristian does not know his supervising Securiate agent's name, so in an instance of synecdoche he calls him "Paddle Hands," reducing the man to his most notable physical feature, his disproportionately large hands.

To emphasize the totalitarian nature of the Romanian government, characters often refer to the entire institution as "Ceaușescu," an instance of synecdoche.

The text makes frequent use of poetic personification to emphasize Cristian's interest in writing and poetry and to explain the power of abstract forces like guilt and shame. For example, Cristian personifies guilt by saying it “walks on all fours. It creeps, encircles, and climbs. It presses its thumbs to your throat. And it waits" to explain how this emotion, when suffered in silence, can destroy a person's life. Similarly, Cristian describes the feeling of shame and fear as "Invisible hands" that "appeared in the darkness." To explain the suffocating nature of shame, Cristian states "one hand gripped my hair. The other pressed down over my nose and mouth. And then it pressed again. Harder."

The novel emphasizes the active, human side of institutions such as the government and the Securiate through personification. For example, Cristian describes the
Securiate as "a monstrous apparatus with huge spinning tentacles planting doubt, spreading rumors, and casting fear." Though the Securiate is a network of many people, its impact and goals are united and deadly; thus, the comparison to a monster is apt.