Genre
Science Fiction / Dystopian Fiction
Setting and Context
Set in the remote future of a post-apocalyptic England.
Narrator and Point of View
Narrator: Riddley Walker
Point of View: First person
Tone and Mood
Offbeat, Foreboding, Melancholic, Curious
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: Riddley Walker; Antagonist: Abel Goodparley
Major Conflict
Riddley Walker has been inducted as the new “connexion man’ which involves interpreting the government propaganda about the nuclear holocaust. In his expedition, Walker seeks to unearth the truth on their shrouded history that led to the obliteration of the formerly advanced modern society.
Climax
The climax reaches when Granser rediscovers and recreates gunpowder with sulfur but the explosion kills him alongside Goodparley.
Foreshadowing
The name of the protagonist foreshadows his quest that involves a journey while solving mysteries.
Understatement
The term “1 Littl 1” for gunpowder is understated taking into account it kills two characters.
Allusions
The mythology and propaganda created by the government allude to the Punch and Judy puppet show and the story of Saint Eustace in Catholic doctrine.
Imagery
“Arnge flames upping in the dark and liting all the faces roun. Catching that time of that nite stoppt on all them faces. You cud smel the berning sharp on the air mixt with the meat smel from the divvy roof. Dogs begun to howl it wer coming and going on the wind. The fire blowing in the wind and the sparks whup off in to the dark and gone. Dark and gone.”
Paradox
The paradox is in the pursuit of the same nuclear technology that devastated the modern human civilization.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Looking at them stannings I knowit inside me they musve had that 1 Big 1 going roun there regler.”
1 Big 1 is a metonymy for nuclear bomb.
Personification
The puppet Punch is personified in the novel.
