A Pale View of Hills Literary Elements

A novel

The actions take place in England, during Nikki’s visit to her mother. This is April of 1970s or 1980s. The protagonist of the story often recollects what had happened in the past, when she lived in Nagasaki, Japan. It might be possible that the events which she recollects happened in 1945.

First-person. The story is told by Etsuko, who is the protagonist of the story.

The story is told in a considerate tone and in a nostalgic mood.

The protagonist of the story is Etsuko, while Sachiko is the antagonist of the story.

The major conflict of the story is a quarrel between Sachiko and Mariko about a moving to America. It is quite possible that the protagonist of the story might have had the same conflict with her daughter Keiko about moving to England.

The climax of the novel happens when Sachiko drowns little kittens of Mariko.

In the beginning of the story a reader finds out that an older daughter of the protagonist commits suicide. This fact foreshadows the further events of the story. One way or another, the protagonist gets back to the topic of her daughter’s death.

When colleagues of Jiro come to visit him, they discuss an incident in which Hanada, one of aforementioned colleagues, threats his wife to beat her, because she wants to vote for a different party. The position of women in the story is rather unenviable.

The novel contains an allusion to the World War II. There are also allusions to prominent composers such as Chopin and Tchaikovsky. A film with Gary Cooper and “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens are also mentioned.

The author uses imagery to describe scenery of Japan and England. Imagery is also used to describe emotions of the characters. The author uses it quite a lot.

Children become adults but they don’t change much. This phrase belongs to Ogata-San, a father of the protagonist’s first husband, who notices that his adult son reacts to things he doesn’t like in the same way he did in his childhood.

The afternoon had turned grey and windy, and I stood in the doorway as she walked down to the end of the drive.
In this example parallelism may be used in order to show a reader how the protagonist perceives the moment.

She was tall, with red wavy hair and glasses which pointed up at the corners.
Glasses are a synecdoche which denotes spectacles.
But surely the Americans didn’t bring all bad.
The Americans are a metonymy for U.S. soldiers in Japan.

Her room. It gives me an odd feeling.
After Keiko’s suicide, the protagonist of the story and her younger daughter often hear little noises from Keiko’s room. Both of them are quite terrified of the room.