The Kitchen Boy Literary Elements

Historical Fiction

1917 in Russia, Bolshevik Revolution is taking place

The narrator starts off as Mikhail Semyonov, who is in his 90s. It then switches to the past to a boy named Leonid, the name Mikhail claims he was born with.

Violent, frightening, terrorizing, tragic, guilty

Protagonist is the kitchen boy Leonid who helps the Romanov family. The antagonist could be either the entire Bolshevik army or their commander.

The Romanov family has been imprisoned in the Impatiev House as communist leaders successfully lead the Bolshevik Revolution. The royal family is trying to escape and gain back control while the Bolsheviks are trying to decide what to do with them.

In the middle of the night, all seven of the Romanovs are roused from their sleep and taken to a nearby cellar under the pretext that their lives are in danger. In reality, a Bolshevik firing squad is waiting for them and they execute the royal family in cold blood.

When the Bolshevik commander tells the kitchen boy Leonid to leave and never come back, in chapter 17, it is a foreshadowing of something ominous that is about to take place.

The Bolshevik soldiers promise to treat the Romanov family like the royals had treated the people. By this they mean they will kill the family, a remark that understates the violence that is about to ensue.

The entire book contains various historical allusions that are artfully weaved together in such a way that they create an imposing setting and background for the novel. These well researched historical facts and allusions to them stem from the author's past life experiences. He spent a few years in Russia and even studied at a university there, learning a lot about their culture and history. An example of one of the allusions he uses is the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, where the people rose up with communist leaders to try and form a new government. This event is the foundation of the book. Another historical allusion is that of the Romanov family, who were actually the ruling monarchs in place during this time period.

The imagery of the Impatiev House creates a foreboding feeling in the reader and adds to the idea of the house as a gigantic prison. As mentioned numerous times beforehand, the windows in the house have bars over them and are painted over while the entire building is surrounded by a wooden barricade. It showcases the extremem isolation of the Romanov family from the outside world.

The Bolshevik revolutionaries believe they are doing what is just and good for the people. They are taking power away from the corrupt royals who mistreated the common people. However, these same soldiers slaughter the five young Romanov children, who obviously had no hand in the rule of the Tsar. It represents the paradox of what the soldiers say they are doing and what they actually do.

A parallel is drawn between the Tsar and the Bolshevik commander. Both expect extreme loyalty and insubordination from their followers while also acting snobbishly themselves. The Tsar has Leonid open his milk bottle for him, even during his imprisonment. The Bolshevik commander is mean to his troops and makes them pay if they don't listen to him.

One example of synecdoche used in the story is boots to represent soldiers. The Bolshevik soldiers are often described as the boots marching to and fro or the boots roaming he perimeter. One specific instance is in chapter 4. An example of metonymy is when one of the soldiers refers to the House of Special Purposes as the shed. In addition to the former title being quite lengthy to repeat over and over, using metonymy and calling it a shed acts as an insult to the Romanov family living inside and compares them to animals or beasts.

Near the end of the book, the author describes the cellar in a frightening way. As the tsar and his family head down the steps into the cellar where they are being taken, the noise is described as if the cellars had screamed into the night. This acts as a foreshadowing of the violence about to ensue, but it is also personification of the cellar steps.