Genre
Fiction, tragic comedy
Setting and Context
Present-day Pagford, a town in the South West of England
Narrator and Point of View
A third person, unnamed omniscient narrator.
Tone and Mood
The tone is of conflict and tension, the mood is passionate and captivating.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Mary Fairbrother is the protagonist, The Fields are the antagonists.
Major Conflict
The major conflict of the novel occurs when Barry Fairbrother dies in the car park at a golf course, as the book explores the impact it has on each of the characters involved.
Climax
The climax is reached when Krystal's social worker, Kay, intervenes and tries to turn her mother's life around by getting her off her heroin addiction.
Foreshadowing
Krystal's addiction to heroin is foreshadowed by her mother being an addict herself, which pushes Krystal into drug abuse and addiction.
Understatement
The effect of the hacked online forum on Mary Fairbrother is an example of understatement in the novel.
Allusions
The novel alludes to the societal issues of prostitution and drug abuse, through the eyes of many of the book's characters.
Imagery
The image of Barry's death and collapse is a particularly strong image that runs throughout the novel as it deeply affects Krystal, as well as the Mollison family.
Paradox
Kay's attempt at helping Terri recover from her drug addiction is paradoxical as Krystal, Terri's daughter, relapses as a result of the lack of attention on her.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
During one of Terri's drug episodes, the heroin is personified, as if Terri is becoming the heroin due to her reliance on it and her nature to draw others in.
