The Book of Mrs. Noah Literary Elements

Fiction Literature, Religious Allegory.

The setting of the novel is Venice and the story has been written in the context of biblical story of Noah and the role of woman in a society.

The story has been written from first person's point of view and the narration shifts from one person to another.

Didactic, Solemn, Feminist, Pensive, Prompting.

The protagonist of the novel is the wife of Noah who saves other women.

The major conflict in the story is between the role of woman in society instead of a man.

The climax in the story comes when the wife of Noah makes an ark for saving her society from flood.

The making of ark foreshadows the story of Noah in Bible.

The understatement in the novel is that a woman can also perform the duties of a man. In the Bible, it was Noah who saved humanity from flood by making an ark while in this fictional narrative, the wife of Noah makes the ark. By highlighting the actions of a woman, the author has propounded that women are also capable of doing everything.

There are allusions to Bible, Noah's story, flood in Venice, chorus, epic story, feminism, survival, death, humanity, Noah's ark and responsibility towards society.

The book revolves around images of flood and survival. The author has demonstrated the biblical story of Noah but here Mrs. Noah makes the ark. There are images of the wife of Noah asking her husband to make an ark but he disappears. The wife of Noah then makes the ark and the sibyls also move along with her. There are also images of sibyls narrating their stories to the wife of Noah. The writer has shown that instead of becoming prudent, the wife of Noah remains humble and fulfills her responsibility towards society just like Noah in the Bible.

The paradox in the story is that the wife of Noah does not summon people like Noah in the Bible. Furthermore, the wife of Noah was not involved in the action but in the novel, she is the hero instead of her husband. The actions which are usually done by men are performed by a woman in the story.

The author has drawn a parallelism between Noah's story in the Bible and the wife of Noah in the novel. As Noah saves his society from flood, the wife of Noah in the story makes an ark to save others from flood.

An example of metonymy is the wife of Noah, who represents all the strong women in the society, who take the responsibility instead of relying on others. An example of synecdoche is the story which alludes towards the role of a woman. Through the character of the wife of Noah, the writer has shown her feminist stance.

Ark and flood have been personified in the book.