Genre
short story
Setting and Context
set in the future in Florida with tangible effects of climate change
Narrator and Point of View
Narrator: omniscient
Point of view: third person
Tone and Mood
Tone: neutral
Mood: contemplative, hopeful
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: a woman called Ramses who decides to join the climate change movement called the Myth; Antagonist: the state, the climate change
Major Conflict
After discovering about the climate change effort called the Myth, Ramses decides to leave her job at the insurance company to look into it and potentially join.
Climax
The Myth is under the siege by the state. In the middle of the siege there is a natural disaster in the form of a giant sheared ice chunk from the Antarctic causing a huge storm and the rise of sea level which completely destroys Miami.
Foreshadowing
"Out beyond the thin silver that remained of the island, iron-dark clouds gathered every morning on the horizon. Ominous. An omen, even."
-foreshadowing of the upcoming disaster caused by climate change
Understatement
"This here's the artsy megastructure that better save my gators."
-Jefferson referring to the Myth monument.
Allusions
"The Myth looked like old drawings of the Tower of the Babel that Ramses had seen paging through her uncle's illustrated Bible as a kid."
"Mickey waved, holding up his camera. "Say hello to my little friend," he quoted."
Imagery
Visual imagery of the structure of the Myth as a tall tower embellished with moth and ivy adds to the strangeness of the whole ordeal and the people involved.
Paradox
"Definitely bizarre, but it was also the most beautiful thing she had ever seen."
-Ramses's impression of the Myth structure
Parallelism
"The sky was clear. The sun would shine strong all day. An omen. A promise."
Metonymy and Synecdoche
"The Everglades pulled poison out of the air more efficiently than a rainforest. To lose it would be to lose the Earth a little lung."
-"Lung" refers to the function of the air filtration.
Personification
"Two hundred feet high they coaxed the swamp, wispy trees aching to touch a threatening sky."
