Genre
Military History
Setting and Context
Europe, 1914-1918 and the events leading up to the war
Narrator and Point of View
Author narrates in an impartial manner
Tone and Mood
Threatening and unstable; tragic
Protagonist and Antagonist
The allied nations are the protagonists, Germany the antagonists
Major Conflict
World War One is the major conflict
Climax
The Allies finally operate together and ultimately drive back back the Germans and achieve victory, thereby ending the war.
Foreshadowing
The shooting of the Duke of Austria-Hungary foreshadows the polarity and instability that leads to the war.
Understatement
The generals expressed concern that trench warfare was dangerous and difficult, but understated the issue because it actually lost an entire generations of young men.
Allusions
The marketing and propaganda characters utilized by the different governments are alluded to.
Imagery
Imagery is very graphic enabling the reader not only to picture visually the trenches with mud, barbed wore, blood and corpses, but also to be able to create an olfactory image of what it must have smelled like and an auditory image with the guns and the screams of anguish from injured men.
Paradox
When Joffre was at his most effective was when he disobeyed orders and contravened strategies as ordered by his generals.
Parallelism
There was a parallel between the egotistical behavior of some generals and the way in which those ill-advised campaigns failed.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The Allies is the word used to cover the British, French, and Russian armies.
Personification
No specific examples
