Genre
Short story
Setting and Context
The action take place in a post-apocalyptic future but the country or the continent where the story takes place remains unnamed.
Narrator and Point of View
The story is narrated from a first person subjective point of view.
Tone and Mood
Tragic, unsettling, violent
Protagonist and Antagonist
There is no protagonist or antagonist in the story.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is an interior one and is given by John’s desire to gain more knowledge and his desire to listen to his father and be an obedient son.
Climax
The story reaches its climax when John discovers who the old Gods were.
Foreshadowing
The identity of the old gods is foreshadowed by the presence of the God’s roads.
Understatement
When the narrator claims that he will be killed by going east proves to be an understatement as nothing bad happens to John.
Allusions
N/A
Imagery
The image of the old bridges in the river is an important image because it highlights the idea that no matter how advanced the society was, there was nothing that could have stopped the event that changed the world from happening. Instead, it shows just how vulnerable the world was and how susceptible it was to destruction.
Paradox
John seems to be a very paradoxical character in the idea that despite describing himself as not being courageous, he goes east, a place avoided by everyone else in his tribe. This proves that John is not only courageous but he is also willing to take risks no one else wants to take.
Parallelism
A parallel can be drawn between John and between society in general. John seems unable to keep himself away from the dangerous things in his life and just in the same way, society can keep itself from destructing itself.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
When the author talks about the old Gods, he talks about the past in general and about the dangers that were in the past.
Personification
At the beginning of the story, ‘’my heart felt small and weak.’’
