Whistling Vivaldi Literary Elements

Non Fiction; Sociology; Psychology

Chicago, 1950s to present

The narrator is the author, Claude Steele, speaking from his own perspective.

Investigative, observational, political

Minority students are the protagonists, societal stereotypes the antagonist.

There is conflict within many minority students who are aware that there is a preconceived stereotype about them; whilst they want to do well they are also so terrified of proving the stereotype that they end up failing and proving its truth.

The climax of the book is Steele's proving his hypothesis; each time that his theories are proven to be true the particular line of research concludes and reaches its climax.

The president of Harvard University believes that female students are naturally less capable at math than male students. This foreshadows the lower grades given to the female students based not on their abilities or results but on the stereotypes that the faculty are employing when they are grading the students' work.

The author postulates that many minority students are governed by their own stereotype but this is an understatement because research shows that all of them are affected in some way by stereotyping

Steele alludes to many of the major influential people in the Civil Rights movement as he describes the progress made.

There is no specific use of imagery.

A desire to succeed within the black male students makes them pressure themselves to much and work too hard meaning that they end up doing far worse in tests than they would have done had they not been trying so hard.

There is a parallel between the stereotypes pertaining to minority students, and their test results.

"Minorities" is the name used to represent a variety of different groups including gay students, female students and black or Asian American students.

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