Half the Sky Literary Elements

Non-fiction

Because this book is a non-fiction one, there is no fixed setting.

The action is told from the perspective of a third-person omniscient and objective point of view.

The tone and mood in the book is neutral one.

The protagonists are women in general and the antagonists are the men.

The major conflict is between oppression and the need women have to thrive.

The book reaches its climax when the writers identify the ways in which women are oppressed.

The book begins with a foreword in which the narrator describes the oppression of women as a "moral challenge". This foreshadows the future problems described as experienced by women.

Rape is described as the most traumatic event a woman can go through. This makes a woman in some cases to avoid any sexual intercourse in the future. However, this is proven to be an understatement because it is later mentioned how women end up marrying the man who raped them.

One of the main allusion we find in the book is the idea that the vast majority of the problems women have to deal with are caused by the men around them.

One of the main images in the book is that of the woman giving birth. The woman is described at this moment as the most wretched being on earth because she will either give birth to someone who will oppress her or to another similar being like she is.

One of the main paradoxical ideas the writers identified is the way in which women who used to work as prostitutes as young children and are managed to escape will eventually return to prostitution once more in adulthood.

The most important parallel in the book is between men and women. This parallel is used to show that men have a better life when compared to women.

Brothels are used as a general term through which the narrator transmits the idea that women are sexually oppressed.

We have a personification in the sentence "the hands worked tirelessly from the beginning of time".