Genre
Biography
Setting and Context
The story is set in America, Rwanda, and Burundi.
Narrator and Point of View
Tracy Kidder narrates Deo's story in the third person.
Tone and Mood
Sympathetic, poignant, resilient, emotional, dreadful, and motivational.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Deo is the protagonist. Antagonists comprise the sponsors of the civil war and racist individuals whom Deo encounters in America.
Major Conflict
Deo finding the strength to proceed with his life and to overcome trauma in the aftermath of the civil war in his country.
Climax
Deo's admission at Columbia University and his attainment of a degree
Foreshadowing
Flashbacks about Deo’s life in Burundi are incorporated into the novel.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
Historical allusions and Biblical allusions are used to expound Deo’s experiences.
Imagery
Deo’s struggles with communication mirror the realities and obstacles of immigrants from non-English speaking countries such as Rwanda.
Paradox
When a woman assaults Deo at a phone station, a bystander, who is Senegalese, advises, "Here in the U.S., you don't touch a woman. It didn't matter whether you are the victim or not. If a woman attacked you like that, the best thing to do was to leave." The paradoxical advice underscores the intersection between racism and gender in America, whereby black men are automatically deemed villains by virtue of their gender and race.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“Genocidaires” denotes the sponsors of the Rwandan genocide.
Personification
Deo's appetite is personified by being portrayed as having physiology.
