Genre
Fictional novel
Setting and Context
The action takes place in the distant future on a distant planet.
Narrator and Point of View
The action is told from the perspective of a third-person objective point of view.
Tone and Mood
The tone and mood in the novel is a neutral one.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is Breq and the antagonist is the person who attacked her 18 years prior before the action in the novel began.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is a political one and is between the two nations mentioned in the novel.
Climax
The story reaches its climax when Breq discovers the true reason behind the war between the two nations.
Foreshadowing
The starship crash described at the begining of the story foreshadows the later political conflict which will arise between the main characters in the book.
Understatement
We find an understatement at the end of the book when the main character claims that her life is perfect. This is an understatement because the book up until that point proved the opposite.
Allusions
One of the main allusions we find here is the idea that gender is not important and that society would benefit greatly if genders no longer existed.
Imagery
N/A
Paradox
One of the most paradoxical ideas is the way in which the characters continue to try and fight for peace even when they realize that acquiring it is impossible.
Parallelism
The narrator draws a parallel between the life the characters had on the two planets. This parallel is used here to transmit the idea that the life on the planet on which Breq lived was better than the life citizens had on the other planet.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The spaceship is used here as a general term to make reference to the idea of independence.
Personification
We have a personification in the line "the buttons screamed at her".
