Chimera Literary Elements

Fantasy

Because the novel is a collection of three stories, it is hard to determine where the action takes place. For the first story, it is safe to assume that the action takes place somewhere in the Middle East even though the exact location is never mentioned. For the last two stories, the action takes place in Ancient Greece because the stories have as their main characters mythological people. As for the time in which the action takes place, it is once again hard to determine as there is no time frame mentioned.

Each story has a different narrator who recalls the events from a first person perspective. In all three cases, the narrator recalls the events to another character in the story. The narrators are Perseus, Dunyazadiad and Bellerophon.

Ironic, tragic, comic

Since there are three stories, there are more than one antagonist and protagonist. In the first story, the protagonists are Dunyazadiad and Scheherazade and the antagonists are the two Kings. In Perseid, the protagonist is Perseus and the antagonist in this case is more abstract, as Perseus fights against death itself. Lastly, in the third story, the protagonist is Bellerophon and the antagonist is the Chimera.

In the first story, the major conflict is between the two sisters and the two Kings and is a direct result of the King’s decision to kill innocent virgins. In the second story, the major conflict is between Perseus and time itself, as Perseus tries to find a way to become immortal.

Because Chimera is composed out of three parts, each part has its own climax. For example, in Perseid, the story reaches its climax when Perseus finds Medusa.

Perseus transformation into a constellation is foreshadowed in the beginning of his story when he noticed how everything passed and that the only things that are eternal are the stars.

When Medusa claims that she will be able to make Perseus immortal it proves to be an understatement because Perseus’s definition of immortality it is not the same as Medusa’s. Perseus hoped that he will become immortal and will continue to live on earth as he did before. Instead, Medusa transforms him into a constellation and he became forced to live the rest of his eternity in the sky, unable to move and be a hero in the traditional sense.

In each story, there is an allusion made to the following story so that there is continuity between the three parts. For example, the story Bellerophoniad is foreshadowed in the story Perseid when Perseus goes to ask for permission to use the magic horse Pegasus and he is told that Bellerophon will also need it. These allusions are what create the impression of a unitary work, even though they are three stories generally unrelated.

At the end of Perseus’s story, the way in which the constellations were described is suggestive because it offers once more a characterization of the main characters. The characters maintained their role and characteristics even in death. For example, Andromeda retained her pride even in death and Calyxa was included as an accessory to Andromeda, thus signaling the fact that Perseus never loved Calyxa and he always thought of his wife even when he was with another woman.

When talking about treasures, both the writer and Scheherazade reached the conclusion that the treasure is also the key to the treasure in their case. This idea is seen as being somehow paradoxical but in the context in which it appears it is also logic because it refers to abstract things like the power words have and the origin of fiction.

In the first part, the writer who appears before Scheherazade draws a parallel between him and Scheherazade in the idea that they are both stuck at the present moment in their lives. The writer feels stuck because he feels that he runs in circles and that his philosophical quest is fruitless. Scheherazade also feels like she is stuck, because she tried for a really long time to find a solution to how to stop the King from killing virgin girls. In a way, their lives depend on finding the answer to their questions; for Scheherazade, she risks being killed by the King and the writer will lose his way of life if doesn’t find the answer to his questions.

In the first part, the term "sister" appears many times and it has a metonymical sense in the idea that the term sister is used not to refer only to females related through blood, but rather linked by their sex. And so, Dunyazaidiad and Scheherazade consider that every woman living in the King’s land is their sister and they must everything they can to protect them.

Bellerophonic letters afloat between two worlds, forever betraying, in combinations and re-combinations, the man they forever represent.