Genre
Novel
Setting and Context
Romania
Narrator and Point of View
First-person narrator
Tone and Mood
Dystopic, chilling, empathetic, reminiscent, and dreadful.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The repressive regime is the antagonist. There are four protagonists: The tragic ones (Lola, Kurt and Georg) and Muller who survives to narrate.
Major Conflict
EscapinN/Ag oppression of the authoritarian regime in Romania.
Climax
The separate, mystifying deaths of the counterculturists/ tragic protagonists.
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
Allusion to communism and history (such as the Nazi era).
Imagery
Despotic tendencies and tribalism suppress the voices of minorities.
Paradox
The song: “If I ever marry/so Mama says/this gift she’ll give me on my wedding day: twenty pillows/all stuffed with biting gnats,/twenty small pillows./all stuffed with stinging ants.” The gifts alluded to in the song are paradoxical and would definitely make the bride’s sleep times unbearable.
Parallelism
Edgar's opening remarks in the novel are the same as his closing remarks. The passages underscore the danger of suppression of the right to free speech.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Securitate refers to security.
Green plums denote unpleasant tyranny.
Personification
Lola’s personifies her native province through her appearance.
Loudspeakers are personified.
