Let the Great World Spin Literary Elements

A polyphonic novel

The events take place in Dublin and New York in a time period from 1974 to the 1990s.

This work is written with the help of a technique of nonlinear narrative. Since this is a polyphonic novel, it is written from several different perspectives. Both a narrator and a point of view change constantly. It is either an omniscient narrator or the first person narrator.

The tone is depressing, moving while the mood is melancholic.

Due to the fact that this is a polyphonic novel, it has a great variety of protagonists. They are Corrigan, Ciaran, Tillie and Jazz Henderson, Adelita, Lara Liveman, Gloria, Claire Soderberg and Solomon Sonderberg, the Walker (Philippe Petit), Sam Peters. The antagonists are the UVF, although it was not directly stated, but the UVF did commit a terroristic attack in Dublin (Ciaran was one of the victims of Dublin bombing), Corrigan’s and Ciaran’s father, Blaine (Lara’s first husband) and TuKwik (one of Tillie’s pimp). The prejudices are also the antagonist.

The story is full on conflicts of various types. One of the well-described conflicts is person vs. self. For instance, Corrigan’s inner conflict could be a perfect example. He vowed to practice celibacy but then he fell in love with Adelita. The vows he gave and longing torn him apart.

The first climax is Corrigan’s death. The second one happens when Gloria decides to adopt Jazz’s daughters.

Corrigan’s need to help others foreshadows the events of the story. It becomes clear that he is going to continue helping the outcasts. The moment when Ciaran arrives to Corrigan’s flat in New York, he understand that his brother is still the same, still trying to save, help and support those, who are rejected by the society.

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The novel alludes to the Vietnam Campaign, Richard Nixon, the IRA, the bombing of Dublin in 1974, the rope walker Philippe Petit, the Bible, the Order of Francis of Assisi, Studio 54, a Moon landing and the bombing of Dresden and Jalaluddin Rumi.

Imagery is often used to describe the way the characters look (especially the hookers) and how they feel. It helps readers to learn more about the inner world of the characters.

Everyone in Dublin was a poet, maybe even the bombers who’d treated us to their afternoon delight.
Afternoon delight Ciaran talks about is the bombing of Dublin, the terroristic attack which caused a lot of destruction and took lives of innocent people. It could hardly be considered to be any kind of delight, that’s why it is a paradox.

Sorry, Corrie, but God is due His ass-kicking.
Words sorry and Corrie rhyme to show Tilley’s manner of speaking.

Hired hands. This is an example of metonymy, for hands stand for workers
She looked up at me and adjusted her glasses on her nose.
Glasses are synecdoche.

New York kept going forward precisely because it didn’t give a good damn about what it had left behind.