Genre
Fiction; novel
Setting and Context
An unnamed asylum in the 1950s.
Narrator and Point of View
An unnamed, third-person omniscient narrator.
Tone and Mood
The tone is confusing; the mood is uneasy.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Malone is the protagonist; Lemuel is the antagonist.
Major Conflict
The major conflict of the novel occurs when Malone wakes up in the asylum, naked in his bed and finds that most of his possessions have been taken.
Climax
The climax of the story is reached when Malone describes a leisure expedition that ends in murder.
Foreshadowing
The affair of Macmann is foreshadowed by the kind nurse he meets.
Understatement
The role of aspirations is understated throughout the novel.
Allusions
The story alludes to the dreams that we all have, that are sadly unfulfilled.
Imagery
The imagery of confusion and deception is present in the novel.
Paradox
The fact that Malone is writing a book about a lost man, yet is lost himself is an example of paradox in the story.
Parallelism
There is a parallel between the life of Malone and the journey that Macmann goes on to find himself.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
N/A
