The Attack Literary Elements

Fictional novel

The action takes place in Tel Aviv during present time.

The action is told from a first-person subjective point of view and the narrator is Dr. Amin Jaafari.

The tone and mood are tense.

The protagonist is Dr. Amin Jaafari and the antagonist is the suicide bomber.

The major conflict is between reality and perception.

The story reaches its climax when the suicide bomber is identified as being Sihem, the main character's wife.

The narrator in the prologue of the book is one of the victims who dies as a result of the bombing. The victim describes in great detail the carnage around him as well as the injuries he had. This shocking first scene is also important because it foreshadows the death of other 10 people who were involved in the attack.

The narrator begins the novel by claiming there is no closer relationship than the one between a husband and wife and that the two know everything there is to know about one another. This however is proven to be an understatement when it is revealed that the doctor had no idea that his wife was so invested and close to a known terrorist group.

The main allusion we find here is the idea that it is impossible to truly get to know a person and that even in the closest relationships there will always be secrets and mysteries.

One important image appears after the narrator finds out that his wife was the suicide bomber. At that moment, instead of seeing her as a dangerous terrorist, he remembers a scene in which Sihem was holding their little daughter in their arms and was singing to her. The reason why this image is important is that it shows that Sihem was not only a terrorist but that she was a complex person who should not be judged so easily.

The main paradox presented in the story is the idea that Jaafari is treated as a terrorist even though it is clear from the start that he had nothing to do with the attack. What is even more paradoxical is the fact that Jaafari does nothing to change the way in which the public thinks about him even if it affects his career and life.

N/A

The sirens are used here as a general term to make reference to the idea of danger.

We have a personification in the sentence "the ground caught me and I could move. All I could do was stare at the carnage around me and watch as the blood rushed from the open wounds to fall on the already dirty floor."