Genre
Science Fiction, Weird Fiction
Setting and Context
Area X, an uninhabited area being studied by an expedition team.
Narrator and Point of View
The narrator is the biologist, who is never given a name. She tells the story from her own point of view, and the text is understood to be the final version of her field journal.
Tone and Mood
The tone is threatening and sinister. The mood is dark and foreboding.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The biologist is the protagonist. At various times, the other members of her expedition team are antagonistic, namely the psychologist and the surveyor. The overarching antagonist is the mysterious Southern Reach agency.
Major Conflict
The unsolved mystery of Area X and its inexplicable claiming of the lives of previous explorers is the major conflict of the novel.
Climax
The biologist encounters the Crawler and is atomized and reconstituted, thus becoming an integrated part of Area X.
Foreshadowing
The disappearance of the anthropologist foreshadows her death, and the black box's description as "outlandish" and its being shrouded in mystery foreshadows the truth that it is really just a psychological ploy, and gestures towards the larger truth that the Southern Reach operates on a basis of lies and manipulation.
Understatement
Allusions
The writing on the tower walls is often likened to biblical passages by explorers, specifically passages from Revelations, which foretells the end of days.
Imagery
The imagery is very stark and bleak; the author uses not only descriptions of the visual appearance of Area X but also describes sounds and smells as well so that we are able to imagine with all our senses what the place is like. Although there is reference made to the color of things, the author's imagery makes Area X seem as though it is phosphorescent and iridescent.
Paradox
The biologist came to Area X to find out why her husband died, yet remains there because she feels that a part of him may still be living.
Parallelism
The biologist provides several examples of transitional environments throughout the text that parallel Area X and serve as microcosmic examples of self-sustaining ecosystems, including her childhood swimming pool and a vacant lot near the home she shared with her husband.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Personification
The biologist has a tendency to relate structures to living things; for example, she describes the tower steps as "the spiraling teeth of some unfathomable beast" (47).
