PLOT STRUCTURE ANALYSIS

Each of the twenty-three chapters that make up the novel is structured chronologically with the occasional flashback. It is part of a narrative told by a grown man as he remembers his eleventh year and the events which impacted his family. He opens the story with a flashback to explain the extraordinary events of his birth and then moves to the present day which happens to be 1962. He ends his narrative as a grown man who occasionally sees the brother he has lost and lives his life as a good man.

There is also a sense of a bildungsroman or a story of a young boy coming of age and the events and decisions he makes that mold his character. Reuben is the young boy / narrator who tells how his illness, severe asthma, his relationship with his family, his reaction to events that threaten all of them, how he witnesses his........

AUTHOR'S STYLE

Leif Enger writes a reader-friendly story, incorporating the common language of a lower middle-class family in........

RISING ACTION

The rising action begins with Reuben's explanation of how his father brought him back to life in God's name when.........

FALLING ACTION

The falling action involves Reuben's time in the other country where he tells his father goodbye and is sent back to the real world. Then, he tells us how he, Swede, and Sara lived together with Roxanna until Swede became a published author and he married Sara and settled into a home of his own. He also tells.........

POINT OF VIEW

The point of view is first person, told from Reuben's viewpoint. He is the narrator and this allows the reader to.........

The complete study guide is currently available as a downloadable PDF, RTF, or MS Word DOC file from the PinkMonkey MonkeyNotes download store. The complete study guide contains summaries and notes for all of the chapters; detailed analysis of the themes, plot structure, and characters; important quotations and analysis; detailed analysis of symbolism, motifs, and imagery; a key facts summary; detailed analysis of the use of foreshadowing and irony; a multiple-choice quiz, and suggested book report ideas and essay topics.