The Gray Man Literary Elements

The Gray Man Literary Elements

Genre

Thriller fiction

Setting and Context

Set in 2003 and takes place in Syria, Bangkok, and Iraq.

Narrator and Point of View

Third person narrative

Tone and Mood

The tone is urgent and the mood is ominous.

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist is Court Gentry, and the antagonist is Lloyd Hansen.

Major Conflict

There is a conflict between Denny Carmichael and Gentry. Carmichael is the director of the CIA, and he discovers that Gentry knows the top secrets of the mercenary, and he decides to kill him. Court Gentry knows of the plot and takes measures to avoid Carmichael's trap.

Climax

The climax comes when Cahill and Fitzroy work alongside Gentry to ensure his safety. Besides Gentry being the smartest ex-CIA man, he needs regular updates from the CIA to help him hide from the killers after his life.

Foreshadowing

The rising of Carmichael to the position of director foreshadowed Gentry's tribulations. CIA adds Court Gentry to the list of the most wanted culprits because he outsmarts his boss.

Understatement

The CIA underestimates Cahill's contribution to helping Gentry avoid the trap of death. Cahill is ailing, but that does not stop her from liaising with Fitzroy to help Court Gentry stay safe from Hansen.

Allusions

N/A

Imagery

The images of the two dead soldiers captured by Al Jazeera journalists depict the sense of sight. Al Qaida smuggles Al Jazeera journalists to show images of the dead American soldiers to the world to spread their propaganda of victory against the Americas.

Paradox

The main paradox is the crash scene where the local boys gain the courage to shoot the burning bodies of the soldiers in the crashed aircraft. The soldiers are already dying, but the local boys want to prove that they are the real heroes who killed them.

Parallelism

N/A

Metonymy and Synecdoche

Extremism is used as a metonymy to refer to religious idiocy, believing that one goes to heaven by killing.

Personification

The rifle used by Gentry when aiming at the terrorists is personified as human because it sees the target and never fails to bring it down.

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