Genre
An essay, nonfiction
Setting and Context
The essay was written in the middle of the 20th century, and the author ponders over the subject of colonialism from the perspective of his time.
Narrator and Point of View
It is first-person narration; the narrator is Aime Cesaire.
Tone and Mood
The tone is revolutionary and audacious. The mood is sarcastic.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is the colonized one, and antagonist in the colonizer.
Major Conflict
The main conflict is of what colonization was supposed to be, and what actually it turned into.
Climax
The text does not contain a climax in its traditional meaning, but expositions of the colonization process might be considered as a climax of human barbarism and cruelty.
Foreshadowing
Within the text the narrator provides aplenty of awful scenes of colonization process, and it foreshadows that human’s cruelty can go even further.
Understatement
The arguments of the colonizers are not treated seriously, and it is justified by the narrator’s point of view.
Allusions
The text contains allusion to many historical events and people, like Adolf Hitler, Ernest Renan, Joseph de Maistre.
Imagery
The images of colonization are depicted in the essay.
Paradox
The paradox is that colonization was supposed to be a way of communication between nations, but it produced only superiority of colonizer and inferiority complex of colonized.
Parallelism
The author describes colonization of Africa, America and India in parallels.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
“At the end of the afternoon, the heat caused a light mist to arise: it was the blood of the five thousand victims, the ghost of the city, evaporating in the setting sun." (‘mist’ is personified)
