In the Pond Literary Elements

Episodic Novel

The novel was written in 1956 in the context of oppressive Chinese rule.

Third-person narrative

Sad, oppressing, glumly, disheartening

The central character is Shao Bin.

The main conflict is that Shao Bin's workmates are all promoted to live in better apartments except him. Shao is excluded from the promotion because of his political views.

The climax comes when Shao takes his case against the bosses in Beijing, where it gains a public audience. As a result, Shao is promoted in work and given the position of the propagandist artist.

The troubles facing Shao Bin are foreshadowed by his strong criticism and comic depictions of his leaders.

Disenfranchisement is understated in the text. For instance, Shao is not discriminated against at his place of work because he is a poor performer but because of his opposing views against management.

The story alludes to disenfranchisement due to personal opinions.

Sight imagery is used when describing the protagonist of the story. The narrator writes, “Bin was a small man. He used to be healthy and stout, but he had lost so much weight in recent years that people called him Skeleton behind his back. Despite his physique, he was both talented and arrogant. He was better read than others on the planet, and he knew a lot of ancient stories, even the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. What is more, his handwriting was handsome."

The main paradox is that despite Shao Bin being promoted as the propagandist artist, he remains in his small apartment while his fellow workmates live in larger apartments.

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Cartoonish imagery is a metonym for expression

Cartoons are incarnated to symbolize the human character.