Genre
Fiction, Historical Fiction
Setting and Context
World War One, England and France
Narrator and Point of View
Third person narrator telling story from the perspective of Billy Prior, and recounting memories from perspective of Dr William Rivers.
Diary entries narrated in the first person by Billy Prior
Tone and Mood
Threatening, depressed, haunted and fearful
Protagonist and Antagonist
Billy Prior is the protagonist; Dr Rivers is the antagonist in wanting to keep Prior from returning to the war
Major Conflict
World War One, front line in France, conflict between England and Germany
Climax
Prior passes his medical interview and is given permission to go back to France
Foreshadowing
Rivers remembers that the extreme interest that Lewis Carroll inspired in him foreshadowed the incident he has no memory of but that caused him to stammer out of trauma
Understatement
Prior says that the medical board does not take shell shock seriously, which understates the issue since the members neither believe in it or consider mental trauma a factor in deciding whether a soldier should return to France
Allusions
Dr Rivers alludes to the classic children's novel "Alice In Wonderland" describing a dream that includes both the Cheshire Cat and the timepiece-obsessed March Hare
Imagery
The author paints images for all of the reader's senses, including smell, of both the front line and the army camp, and also describes personnel in great detail. An example of this is the description of Prior's officer servant, Longstaffe: "an ironing board of a body, totally flat. Interesting gestures, though. He's the only man I've ever known to open a door with his hips. Perfectly plain, nondescript features. No Wanted poster would ever find him, but also this curious feeling that his face could be anything he wanted it to be, even beautiful."
Paradox
Rivers is charged with treating the mental illnesses of his patients whilst actually suffering from more psychological issues than they do including a trauma-related speech disorder and a tendency to vivid nightmares
Parallelism
Rivers draws a parallel between the young men in the missionary village throwing nuts from the trees and the pranks played by English university students during Rag Week
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Germans are collectively known as Boche, and soldiers will say "it was just a Boche" when they kill a soldier, using the representing word rather than defining them as individuals
Personification
Rivers writes that the creamy pages of his diary are saying "piss off, what could you possibly write on us that would be worth reading?" giving paper pages the ability to think, speak and make judgements
