Genre
A collection of short stories
Setting and Context
The majority of stories take place in Maine.
Narrator and Point of View
Most of the stories are told from the third point of view by an omniscient narrator. However, there are some that are told from the third point of view.
Tone and Mood
The tone is unemotional whilst the mood is unsettling.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Jocelyn is the protagonist in three stories. Insecurity, loneliness, fears, are the antagonists.
Major Conflict
Person vs. self is one of the most used types of conflicts.
Climax
Jocelyn’s state of distress over her mother’s new boyfriend is the climax.
Foreshadowing
"I’ll write about it in my diary, that it was an omen. Fate was pissing on me."
The more Sophie Renaldo Brown jokes about her death, the clearer it becomes that she doesn’t do that just for fun’s sake. She tries to help her niece to get used to the thought.
Understatement
This was bad news, said so matter-of-factly that, right away, I began silently denying it.
Aunt Sophie takes her niece aback by informing her about the possibility of her – Sophie’s – early death.
Charlotte Octavia had attempted to take her life once. Twice, to be honest.
Allusions
Aunt Sophie Renaldo Brown alludes to The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Imagery
See the imagery section
Paradox
In her diary, Bettina had called him prissy. How hugely insulting.
Parallelism
Tinkle, tinkle.
The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
I would never have an eye for nuance. (An eye is metonymy that denotes an ability to notice something.)
I don’t even wear glasses. (Glasses are synecdoche that denotes spectacles.)
Personification
Sundays carried a burden too heavy to bear.
“Does it matter that the car keeps locking and unlocking?” Jocelyn said
“It’s got a mind of its own.”
