Genre
Novel, Nonfiction, and Biography
Setting and Context
New Jersey and Yale; 1980s-2010s
Narrator and Point of View
Jeff Hobbs is the narrator who writes from a biographer’s point of view.
Tone and Mood
Grave, catastrophic, miserable, and gloomy
Protagonist and Antagonist
Robert Peace plays the roles of the protagonist (in terms of his exemplary academic accomplishment) and the antagonist (when he gets tangled in the drugs trade.)
Major Conflict
Major conflict relates to drugs which heartbreakingly extinguish both Robert Peace’s life and his father’s life.
Climax
The precocious demise of Robert Peace.
Foreshadowing
The title foreshadows Robert Peace’s crushing ending.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
Historical legal allusions are incorporated in Robert Peace’s biography.
Imagery
The imagery of marijuana strains conceived by Robert Peace and his involvement in their circulation represents the extensiveness of drug disaster in America.
Paradox
Robert Peace's gorgeous persona and charisma are paradoxical: “while he (Truman) and his teammates were changing back into dry clothes, his coach was mentally preparing to spend the night selling drugs.”
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
‘College kids’ refers to university students.
'bon appetite' denotes having a hearty meal/appetite.
Personification
Bodies are personified to signify persons.
