Genre
Novel
Setting and Context
Set in the context of injustice, racism and identity crisis
Narrator and Point of View
First-person narrative
Tone and Mood
Sad, disheartening, hopeless and buoyant
Protagonist and Antagonist
The central character is Miss Else.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is when Miss Else learns that her father has been imprisoned for failing to raise a debt of 3,000 guldens. Miss Else receives this bad news while on vacation with her aunt.
Climax
The climax comes when Miss Else panics and leaves the house naked, and she takes a toxic chemical that kills her.
Foreshadowing
Miss Else's early death is foreshadowed by the financial institutions' injustices done to her father.
Understatement
Miss Else's journey to find funds to free her father is understated. According to Else's mother, she is supposed to go and look for Dorsday to borrow the needed money. However, Miss Else is still young and confused, and she sets on a journey whose ultimate end is her death.
Allusions
The story alludes to injustices by the financial institutions and ethnicity.
Imagery
The imagery of sexuality and desire dominates the book. When Miss Else sets out on the streets to find money to free her father, she is tempted to join prostitution to raise funds, but she sticks to her morals.
Paradox
The main paradox is that Miss Else's aunt, a luxurious vacation, can do nothing to help Else's father get out of financial distress.
Parallelism
There is parallelism between Else’s expectation of life and the reality on the ground.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
Financial institutions are personified as unfair.
