Genre
Philosophical book
Setting and Context
The book is written in the context of realism and idealism.
Narrator and Point of View
First-person narrative
Tone and Mood
The tone is curious, and the tone is informative.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The narrator is the protagonist.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is that people depend only on opinions to conclude reality, which is counterintuitive.
Climax
The climax comes when the narrator realizes that his arguments about the external world do not influence most people because they already believe in idealistic assumptions.
Foreshadowing
Moore’s disagreement with his mentors about idealism foreshadowed his failure to convince people that a world perspective exists.
Understatement
Realism is understated in the text. According to the author, idealism rules the world because people do not want a second opinion about their existence.
Allusions
The story illustrates an illusion of perception about reality and human existence.
Imagery
Moore's description of human perception about idealism and reality paints a picture that explains why most people are adamant about taking second opinions. Therefore, human reasoning is limited to idealism.
Paradox
The main paradox is that human perception is taken for granted. Despite perceiving real truth in the external world, people only rely on their limited thinking to conclude that idealism is the real deal.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
‘Solipsism’ refers to the unfortunate conviction that an individual in question is the only ‘real’ human being.
Personification
N/A
