The Dew Breaker Literary Elements

Novel

The novel is set in Haiti, written in the context of dictatorship.

First-person narrative

Emotional, disheartening, pessimistic

The central character is Ka.

The conflict is when Ka wakes up to find his father missing in the hotel. The sculpture that they were to sell to a famous Haitian television personality was also missing.

Kai’s father reappears after disappearing the previous day and proceeds to throw the sculpture into the lake.

His disappearance foreshadows the truth about Kai's father. After repapering, Kai's father confesses that he was a killer and his work was touring prisoners.

Kai's father is understated throughout the text. The reader realizes that Kai's father lives a lie, and he does everything possible to hide his true identity.

The allusion in the story ‘Seven’ alludes to nervousness associated with visiting new places.

The imagery of Kai's father is evident in the story 'The sculpture'. The imagery describes Kai's father sculpture which aids readers to see the physical appearance of Kai's father. When describing the sculpture, the narrator writes, "A three-foot mahogany figure of my father naked, kneeling on a half-foot-square base, his back arched like the curve of a crescent moon, his downcast eyes fixed on his very long fingers and the large palms of his hands….It was the way I had imagined him in prison..”

The main paradox is in the 'Dew Breaker' in which Ann's saves the life of dew breaker, who was the murderer of her brother.

Ka’s father’s public life parallels his reality. Most of the time, he hides his identity to avoid being recognized.

N/A

The sculpture is immortalized.