Genre
Fiction
Setting and Context
China, shortly after the people's revolution, during conflict with Korea
Narrator and Point of View
The narrator is Yu Yuan, telling the story of his life from his own perspective in his fictional memoir
Tone and Mood
The tone is generally devoid of hope.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Yu is the protagonist; the different political factions vying for his loyalty are the antagonists.
Major Conflict
The major conflict affecting Yu is between the Communist and Nationalist factions within the prison camps, a conflict he makes greatly worse by his general lack of interest in politics, his desire to get home to his fiancé and his affiliation with both sides that makes him seem universally untrustworthy.
Climax
At the end of the war, Yu is allowed to go home to China.
Foreshadowing
His imprisonment foreshadows the fact that he is viewed as a disgrace to his family and disloyal to the Party, because his membership oath dictates that he should fight to the death to avoid imprisonment.
Understatement
Yu tells of the disgrace brought on his family but this is an understatement, because a party member who has been imprisoned loses all influence.
Allusions
The majority of the allusions are political rather than cultural and the kidnap plot alludes to to the real life plot to kidnap American General Dodd.
Imagery
The imagery of the prison camps enables the reader not just to visually picture the conditions but also to engage their senses in imagining the smells and the sounds as well
Paradox
Yu did everything in the camps with a view to getting home to his fiancé, but in playing both sides against the middle brought disgrace to the family and ended up losing her anyway.
Parallelism
There is a parallel between the way in which the communists try to force loyalty from their members and the way in which the nationalists try to force each prisoner to align with them.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The Camp is used to "represent" all of the prisoners.
Personification
No specific examples in the novel
