My Abandonment Literary Elements

Coming-of-Age / Young Adult

Present-day in Oregon and Boise, Idaho.

First-person narration from the perspective of Caroline.

Obsequious, Naïve, Isolated

Protagonist: Caroline; Antagonist: The harsh and unideal circumstances Caroline has to deal with due to her father’s post-traumatic stress disorder and inability cope with society.

The main characters live in unsuitable conditions in the wilderness to escape the chaos and restraints of civilization except when it demands their return. Caroline trusts her father as they live in isolation away from society however she gradually grows paranoid of him as well as other people.

After the tragic accident, Caroline roams alone making her way to her childhood home where she regains past memories of her father kidnapping her.

“Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.”

The lessons the father conveys to Caroline resonate with her even later in her life. The statement foreshadows how Caroline lives her life after rejoining society and leading a normal life.

“Father is sleeping, exactly the same. He twitches all of a sudden like maybe the start of a helicopter dream and then he settles.”

Due to naivety, Caroline understates the post-traumatic stress disorder that her father suffers from.

The novel is a fictionalized version of a true story involving a veteran father and her teenage daughter who was found living in Forest Park. Moreover, the narrative incorporates some elements of the infamous kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“The forest park stretches eight miles across and our house is somewhere in the middle. It goes up a mile from our house to fields and farmhouses and then slants down steep for a mile the other way, to the rod and the city, the railyard and all the metal pieces and trucks and storage containers…”

“I am a person who likes to be alone since I am never alone, exactly.”

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“An electrical station humming inside its own fences…”