The Refugees Literary Elements

The Refugees Literary Elements

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.

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