The Dark Child (The African Child)

The Dark Child (The African Child) Literary Elements

Genre

Memoir

Setting and Context

The memoir is set in Guinea while it was still a French colony in the 1930s and 1940s.

Narrator and Point of View

Camara Laye is the narrator and author; the point of view stays with him.

Tone and Mood

The tone is nostalgic and explanatory; the mood shifts between whimsy, contemplation, and sentimentality.

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist is Camara Laye; antagonists include his mother, his father, and school bullies.

Major Conflict

The major conflict is that Camara Laye knows he is destined for an uncertain future that will involve pursuing higher education rather than inheriting his father's place in Guinean society as a goldsmith and metal worker.

Climax

The memoir reaches its climax when Camara Laye leaves Guinea to study in Paris, a decision that greatly upsets his protective mother.

Foreshadowing

When Laye is a child, his father tells him that one day, Laye will leave him to follow a different path. This prophecy comes true years later when Laye moves to France to continue his education.

Understatement

Allusions

Imagery

Paradox

Parallelism

Metonymy and Synecdoche

Personification