Genre
Short fiction.
Setting and Context
“Black-eyed women”: Korea and America. “War Years”: Vietnam during the 1970s and 1980s.
Narrator and Point of View
"Black-eyed women": First-person point of view.
“War Years”: First-person narrator.
Tone and Mood
“Black-eyed women”: Grotesque, fearsome, imaginary.
“War Years”: Upsetting, mournful,
Protagonist and Antagonist
“Black-eyed women”: A ghost-writer is the protagonist, whereas ghosts are antagonists. “War Years”: A Vietnamese boy is the protagonist. Communists are the antagonists.
Major Conflict
“Black-eyed women”: Confrontation of ghosts.
“War Years”: Communism in Vietnam.
Climax
“Black-eyed women”: The narrator’s encounter with her departed brother’s ghost.
"War Years": The narrators' parents' monetary contribution to Mrs. Hoa, which is intended to support Vietnam's "the war on communism."
Foreshadowing
“Black-eyed women”: The narrator’s mother foreshadows that her departed son’s ghost will never return.
“War Years”: The narrator employs flashbacks to expound the events during “the war years.”
Understatement
“Black-eyed women”: The narrator understates the danger posed by ghosts by claiming that some are “shy.”
“War Years”: the Communists’ alleged ‘evilness’ is overstated when they are portrayed as ungodly.
Allusions
“Black-eyed women”: Allusions to mysticism and oral literature.
“War Years”: Historical allusion (Vietnam War) and allusion to literary work (“The Fall of the House of Usher.”)
Imagery
“Black-eyed women”: The narrator’s descriptions persuade a reader about the reality of ghosts.
"War Years": The "War Years" are characterized by mayhem, agony, death, and destruction.
Paradox
"Black-eyed women": The act of 'haunting ghosts' is paradoxical; usually, the ghosts are deemed to haunt the living.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“War Years”: Guerrillas are dissident fighters.
Personification
“Black-eyed women”: Ghosts are personified.