Scarborough Literary Elements

Fiction

Scarborough, a low-income neighborhood in Toronto, Canada; 21st century

Multiple narrators; most in the first person, some in the third. There are also emails, daily reports, and letters which are in the first person.

Tone: comforting, celebratory, sympathetic, joyful, despairing, suspicious

Mood: determined, dignified, joyous, warm, drained, painful, stressed

There are many protagonists and no traditional antagonists. Even the more loathsome characters (Cory, Clara) have a degree of humanity.

There are numerous conflicts within each character's life, but perhaps the overall conflict is whether or not poverty, race, broken families, and other complex factors will keep the characters down.

There is a fire in the apartment building and Cory and Laura perish.

1. The eventual clash between Jane and Hina that leads to Jane's firing is foreshadowed in the increasing tension in their emails to each other
2. Laura's death is foreshadowed by Bing thinking he glimpses her in the church the night she dies

When Jessica says to Cory, "I left her in the bowling alley" (41), this is an understatement because what she is really saying is that she has abandoned her daughter

1. Chatelaine magazine: a Canadian women's magazine
2. Prussian Eagle: a symbol of the Weimar Republic, Nazism, and white supremacy
3. American Idol: an American TV show in which singers compete to impress judges and the voting audience in order to be crowned the titular honor
4. Picasso: famous Spanish Cubist painter and sculptor
5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: a novel by Roald Dahl (and a film adaptation) about a boy who wins a trip to a famous chocolate factory run by the elusive Willy Wonka

The imagery of Scarborough itself suggests poverty, neglect, and struggle, but the imagery related to the central figures, such as Bing and Sylvie, reinforces their humanity, their endurance, their worth, and their joy. For example, the image of Bing onstage, wearing a sparkly halter and belting out a Whitney Houston song before an adoring crowd, is one of pure rapture, positivity, and confidence. The residents of Scarborough do not merely languish in their straitened circumstances but rather find beauty, hope, and resilience when they can.

N/A.

Many of the characters' lives parallel each other when it comes to less-than-salubrious parental situations (bad fathers are a motif), dealing with racism and poverty, and experiencing the highs and lows of life in Scarborough

N/A.

1. "The wind rushes through the leaves of the trees, and it sounds like they're clapping at me. Like the wind is saying something" (Laura, 11)
2. "All the labels looked back at me" (Sylvie, 24)