Genre
Short Story
Setting and Context
1930s New Jersey, in the private home of a new patient
Narrator and Point of View
The Doctor is the narrator and his account is autobiographical and memoir in style therefore the story is told from his point of view.
Tone and Mood
Disturbing, threatening, and mystifying
Protagonist and Antagonist
The doctor is the protagonist, the child the antagonist.
Major Conflict
The conflict between the doctor and his young patient is entirely physical as she fights him off in ever more savage and forcible ways.
Climax
It is implied that the doctor overpowers her as he tries to force her to allow him to conduct a throat examination.
Foreshadowing
The way in which the little girl begins to defend herself against even the beginnings of an examination foreshadows the physical struggle that ensues.
Understatement
The doctor admits that his feelings of love for the child are strange and unlikely, but this is an understatement because he never confronts how completely inappropriate his feelings are.
Allusions
The doctor alludes to other experiences of diphtheria but there are not cultural allusions, merely allusions that refer to his own personal experiences.
Imagery
The imagery is very dark and the forcible throat examination actually creates an image that is almost a violation of the little girl.
Paradox
The doctor believes that he has fallen in love with the little girl, but at the same time acknowledges that this is strange and unbelievable.
Parallelism
There is a parallel between the way in which he physically overpowers the girl to conduct the throat exam she doesn't want, and the way in which a rapist violates his victim.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
No specific examples
Personification
No specific examples
