Definitions of literary elements:
Symbolism: The use of an object to represent another thing or idea.
Foreshadowing: A slight hint or clue to what will happen next in the story.
Flashback: A quick “visit” to the past.
Atmosphere: the envirorment where the story is set.
Plot twist: A quick turn of events.
Progressive time: When the story is told chronologically, or in order.
Digressive time: The story starts in the past or the future, and the switches around to different times.
Suspense: The anticipation of a negative event.
Paragraphs:
My book is a non fiction novel about Marie Antoinette’s life. Therefore any literary elements found in the novel are induced from real life facts. For example, there are examples of symbolism that a reader can infer from the story, but there aren’t parts of the story that are symbolic on purpose, since this doesn’t happen in real life. Many of Marie Antoinette’s acquaintances, such as the Duchesse de Polignac, could symbolize her attitudes at the different times of her life. For example, The Archduchess Elizabeth is her favorite when she first arrives in the palace. She chooses her for her shy, quiet ways. At this time, she is considered the young, pretty Dauphin, who has to stay discreet in order to secure her place at Versailles. After she becomes Queen, she befriends the Duchesse de Polignac, who has a crazy, wild, carefree spirit. This is when people start to see her as a gambler, a partier, and a drinker, who spends all of the country’s money in her own luxuries. By the end of the book, she prefers playing with her kids or talking with one of the court musicians than spending time with other ladies. She has become a quiet, mildly depressed woman.
The author adds some discreet sentences that foreshadow what’s to come in Marie Antoinette’s future. For example, when the Indian nobles come to visit, she adds the phrase “none of them would expect that this was the last royal visit to the court”. This then leads the reader to think that the court might end soon. Also, the Diamond Necklece Affair can be interpreted as a form of foreshadowing to the Queen naiveness and trouble with politics. When Rohan steals the diamond necklace, saying that the Queen asked him to purchase it for her, the French public, as well as the court itself, seems to turn against her. Only the kind believes that she didn’t ask for it, and even though it is solved without a direct repercussion, the image that i created of her is left in the French public.
The book is a very direct non fiction novel, the author simply states the facts, almost as if it were a textbook. Therefore, there are little flashbacks in the story. Sometimes, however, the author will refer to an event in the past, especially in the begging of the book. She is describing the royal family, then quickly goes back a couple years to tell an anecdote about them. For example, she is talking about Ferdinand, then goes back five years, tells the story of how his new wife died of smallpox, and returns to talk about another member of the family.
There is a very clear atmosphere throughout the whole book. At first, Antonia lives in the friendly, relatively relaxed court of Vienna. She has a happy, carefree childhood there. However, as soon as she arrives at Versailles, the atmosphere changes. Some seem to be judging her, being nice to her in person but calling her “The Austrian B*tch” behind her back. However, her overall reception is good, both by the king and by the french people. They call her name, follow her when she claps, and are enthusiastic whenever she parades around the streets. As she becomes queen and the countries’ economy worsens, there is more and more circulation of pamphlets criticizing her, and when she makes visits to the city, no one comes out to greet her. When she arrives at her son’s funeral, there are no cries of “God Save The Queen”, like there was for her husband. In the court, most of the ministers are hostile towards her, mainly because of her Austrian background. This book is great at showing a changing atmosphere, from friendly and carefree, to welcoming and adoring, to disposing and hostile.
There aren’t any plot twists in this story, except perhaps the death of the Dauphin. All the problems that happen are the consequence of lots of other smaller events, such as the revolution. However, when the Queen finally gives birth to a son, the Dauphin, he dies quickly because of an illness. This is brought as very sudden and very troubling to Marie Antoinette, since she is once again left without an heir to the throne. However, since she later gives birth to two sons, this doesn’t really “twist” the plot. Since this book is non fiction, the author can’t add her own kind of “plot twist, but if she could, I think she should have made the King Die. Then, the Dauphin would be king, but since he was so young, Marie Antoinette would have had to rule in his place, making a very pro-austrian reign.
The story is told in Progressive time. It starts when she is born with austria, follows her to Versailles, were she becomes Queen, then she is later arrested, and eventually killed. There are dates for every event and they are told in chronological order. It’s almost as if the author had a timeline and then wrote the book describing each event in the line. The only time when the story kind of goes back is when they are describing all the characters. Since Marie Antoinette is the youngest, the author often goes back in time to tell the story of her mother, the king, her father, her sisters, the dauphin, or even her tutor.
The story isn’t told in digressive time, but I think it would work really well if it did. They could start with the part when she’s in jail, and describe it all the way until she died. Then, they could tell the story of how she got there, since she came to Versailles. Finally they could add a final part, almost an epilogue, of her origins, like her childhood in Austria. This would provide a reader a more objective view to the events leading up to her death, since in progressive time you have learned enough about Marie Antoinette you feel like you “know” her. This could mean a bias opining when judging her position in the French Revolution, something that happened to me personally.
In the book, there isn’t any suspense. The writing is pure stating of the facts, so whatever you need to know, she’ll tell you. There is a little bit of suspense in the Diamond Necklace Affair, because you don’t know who told the cardinal to buy the diamonds, but just as you start wondering the author tell you exactly what happened. I think they could have added some suspense when they come to get her at the palace, instead of saying it. She could have worked a little more on the writing and added some suspense in that scene, so the reader wouldn’t know whether or not they would take her and get worried.
Peer Feedback:
Gabriela (Copello),
I think you understood plot twist very well, if someone thought a boy hated but he actually liked her, it seems like a pretty big change in the story. However, you mentioned that the book contains lots a flashbacks and foreshadows, so it’s digressive time. I think that for time to be digressive, an entire part of the story has to be told in the past, not just a small story. From what I read, your story seems to be told in progressive time, simply with flashbacks. The organization of your paragraphs was also hard to understand, I didn’t know which parts were definitions and which parts were your analysis.
Isabel (Serna),
I really liked your first paragraph on foreshadowing, your example seemed very clear and made me realize that I was probably using examples that are took vague to be considered foreshadowing. When you were describing what your book would be like in digressive time I got a little confused. If the story started with the ceremony, wouldn’t we loose the plot twist? I also think you might have confused suspense and atmosphere a little. You said the atmosphere “made the reader intrigued and want to know what was going to happen”, but this to me seems more like an element of suspense.
Isabela (Velasco),
I liked the way you cited page numbers where you found the elements. I probably should have done that since there is almost no “evidence” in my analyzation. However, while reading yours I found enough of it to even make the analysis myself. I read the book too, and I think i disagree with you on the atmosphere change. I do agree that things turn better for the girls as the book goes on, but what you described seemed more like their changing feelings rather than their surroundings.
Literary Elements Prezi:
http://prezi.com/aj0mygns-y1l/literary-elements/?kw=view-aj0mygns-y1l&rc=ref-3339117
Evaluation:
When we were watching the videos, I realized I was a little bit confused about the difference between flashback and digressive time. In Santiago’s video, he puts the example I used for flashback as digressive time. Thankfully, he explained at the end that it wasn’t a flashback since most of the episode was going back an forth. He then gave an example of flashback, when a girl refers to her past memory. I learned that if most of the story is told in the past, it becomes digressive time, while a flashback is much shorter and most often a mere reference.
myenglish8blog 