The Story of the Treasure Seekers Literary Elements

Children's Fiction

London, in the Edwardian era, in an area populated by well-to-do families

The narrator is Oswald Bastable, although he is trying to keep his identity a secret from the reader he writes as an impartial narrator. However, without his realizing it, the novel is narrated from his perspective.

The mood is optimistic, yet there is a sense of yearning for an earlier time when things were financially easier and the children's mother was still alive

The Bastable children are the protagonists and the lack of money in the Bastable household is the antagonist

Conflict between the children as they each insist that their plan for seeking treasure is the best one

The arrival of the children's Indian Uncle for a second time, bearing riches and gifts, as they realize that he is not a poor Indian after all and that the fortunes of the House of Bastable have been restored

The arrival of merchants at the front door, such as the butcher, foreshadows a bill or an invoice that the children's father is unable to pay

Oswald states that money was more tight than it used to be when in fact there is no money at all and the way that the home is falling into disrepair bears witness to this

Oswald alludes to characters in a Dickens novel on several occasions in the book

The author and her narrator paints an image of a once-beautiful home that is getting more and more shabby due to lack of money to upkeep it. Paint is chipping, wallpaper is peeling from the walls and there are several spots where the paper has come off all together. A chair that was accidentally set alight during an indoor fireworks incident has a burned patch in the middle of the cushion which has not been replaced. The carpets are threadbare and the children are also becoming threadbare, with holes in their clothes and patches that have been sewn and re-sewn by Dora. The image that we are given is one of a home that is still filled with love but that has fallen into disrepair.

Oswald wants to be impartial as a narrator but paradoxically praises the character of "Oswald" far more than he does the other children, thereby giving away his identity whilst trying hard to keep it a secret

Noel draws a parallel between his life and the way he has met a princess, and the life of poets in books who always seem to meet a princess and live happily ever after

The House Of Bastable is used to represent the Bastable family and all of the members of it.

Oswald says that their shabby home tells a story of their financial situation. A home cannot actually tell a story but he is implying that it can by showing visitors to the home what their financial situation actually is