Rameau's Nephew Literary Elements

A novel, a philosophical conversation

There is not an indication of a date in the text. Presumably, the conversation described in the story might have happened in 1761. The events take place in the Regency café, Paris.

A first-person narrative. Taking into account that the story is a dialogue, a narrator changes from time to time. Sometimes a reader can notice that the narrator changes from the first person to the third person omniscient. In such a way, a reader gets a change not only to read the dialogue, but also take a glimpse at the surrounding and behavior of characters.

In spite of seriousness and importance of themes discussed by the characters, both tone and mood in the story are light and humorous.

Me (Mr. Philosopher) is the protagonist, while Him (Rameau’s Nephew) is the antagonist.

The major conflict lies in disagreement among two different world views.

A climax is achieved when the characters get involved in a heated discussion. The characters discuss several different topics, which means that there are several climaxes in the dialogue.

When Me describes Him as “a mixture of loftiness and depravity, of good sense and buffoonery”, it becomes clear that their conversation is going to be a battle of wits.

Due to the use of irony and a general humorous tone of the story, it is rather difficult to find any understatement. The characters exchange witty remarks even on smothering children. The whole conversation could be considered to be an understatement

The characters of the story mention such names as Caesar, Marcus Aurelius, Socrates, Phryne, Diogenes, Racine, Socrates, Buffon, Duclos, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire and many others. There is also a mention of the opera Les Indes Galantes.

The author uses imagery to describe the antics of Him (Rameau’s Nephew).

Nothing is more unlike him than himself.
When Me says it about Him, he means that Him changes easily. If he has money and eats properly, he gains weight and looks like a person who has nothing to complain about. If he has no money, he becomes as skinny as a skeleton.

He shakes things us. He agitates us. He makes us praise or blame. He makes the truth come out, revealing who has value. He unmasks the scoundrels.
Parallelism is this example is used in order to show an effect of an eccentric on people.

Sometimes we didn’t have any bread or any money.
Bread is metonymy which refers to all kinds of food.
From one pole to the other all I see is tyrants and slaves.
Tyrants are a case of synecdoche which refers to all figures of authority, while slaves are all people who don’t posses any authority.

They will envy France.
France in this example acquires qualities of a person, because it is not possible to envy an inanimate thing.