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Characterization: The main character of this classic novel is a middle-aged professor named Humbert Humbert, who narrates the story about his perverse obsession with 12-year old Delores. Humbert is very easily recognized throughout the book as some kind of maniac, as he loves the little girl so much that he fails to see her as her own human, but rather as his toy. His narration of the story makes his true character murky, Humbert obviously having a skewed idea of his true intentions and personality. He almost never writes anything actual factual about himself (making it difficult to find any textual evidence of his true characteristics), usually manipulating both the reader, himself, and Lolita into believing he is truly just a misunderstood hero. Behind that victim-like facade, he is a perverted, selfish man capable of ruining a little girl's life.
Structure: The structure of this book is set up to purposefully confuse and intrigue the reader about the difference between Humbert's retelling of events, and what actually happened. It starts off with him explaining his childhood and first love, leading up to his first encounter with Delores. The story is then told from Humbert's perspective as he sits in jail, awaiting trial. Apart from the few flashbacks and opening, it is told in chronological order of his relationship with the 12-year-old.
Setting: This classic novel is mainly told in the setting of suburban America during the late 40s and early 50s. While that is where the main premise and plot of the story happen, there is also partly credit to early 1900s Europe, as that is where Humbert grew up. He received a high-class education in France, and uses his background as a high class European to easily make assumptions and opinions on the rural and suburban parts of America at the time.
Figurative Language: While the author deliberately strays from any symbolism and "deeper meanings," it is somewhat easy to identify the types of figurative language he often used and why. Lots of simile and metaphor is used when in relation to Humbert discussing his feelings for his young lover. The middle-aged pervert often equates Lolita to innocent, whimsical objects or animals as to create an air of adoration for the young girl. Commonly referring to her as a "nymphet," as in the first chapter on page 5. It's important for the author to use certain languages to easily pass off Humbert's troubling thoughts about Delores as both pure-of-heart, and romantic. As a well-educated European, Humbert also often alludes to many things, some of which include historical figures, but most include other literary references to novels or well-known characters.
Narration: The point of view of this book is very important and deliberate, as it can be easily assumed that told under the perspective of anyone else, the novel would be much less dark, confusing, and irritating. The author chooses to use Humbert as the narrator, which is part of the reason why I, as a reader, was even able to withstand every chapter. His clouded judgement, (or rather misjudgment) sometimes often causes the reader to feel sorry for, or even understanding of his relationship with a young, incapable girl. It's also later revealed to be told from Humbert's prison cell as he sits and rethinks the events of his life.
Language: Nabokov's writing style is really what makes this book so spectacular. As I became more invested in the story, I was surprised to often find myself silently laughing or smiling along with the words on the page. Even on top of the dark subject matter, Nabokov does an excellent job of creating a sickly-sweet atmosphere of pure, intellectual, humorous, and morally-questionable romance. He uses Humbert's mania and lack of self-awareness to grip the reader in an almost-trance like obsession with his own obsession, using strong language to often make you feel as if you too, are falling in love with the young "nymphet." This writing style mostly reminds me of a mix between Edgar Allan Poe and children's literature. Using mindful aesthetics to tell the disturbing and sad tale of the deflowering of little Lolita.

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The Price Guide To The Occult - Leslye Walton - 210

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The Price Guide To The Occult - Leslye Walton - 210

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Characterization: The book's main character, Nor Blackburn, is the 8th daughter in the long lineage of the Blackburn women. After their matriarch, Rona, cast a dark spell over a man for plotting to kill her, the rest of the Blackburn women are left with a curse. Nor is introverted, observational, and very devoted to staying anonymous. As read in the very first chapter; "Nor had never had the heart to tell anyone that all she wanted was to make the slightest mark as humanly possible on the world, she was too preoccupied with proving to herself that she was nothing like her mother to be focused on anything else." (Pg.26, paragraph 3)
Structure: The prologue of the book takes place generations before the actual setting, telling the story of Nor's infamous ancestor Rona Blackburn and how her black magic caused the family curse. From then it tells Nor's story of her modern-day struggle with her limited powers and her dark family history through chapters. The story's POV and main structure is set up to tell Nor's inner conflict in chronological order.

Setting: This novel takes place in modern day times, as it mentions personal cell phone usage and social media. The characters all live on a small, eccentric island off the coast of Washington called Anathema.

Figurative Language: The author of this novel uses lots of different types of figurative language to convey the magical and spiritual aspects of the plot. I'm going to use an example of personification, but metaphor, proverb, allusion, idiom, and simile are all used frequently throughout the text. Proverb and allusion specifically to include the history of witchcraft and its fables. "The leaves' autumn song accompanied Nor as she took the long way home..." (Pg.31, paragraph 3)
Narration: The book is written in third-person narrative, but follows closely to the thoughts and experiences of the main character, Nor.
Language: The author uses a lot of descriptive language about the surrounding nature of the island to connect with the reader. They use lots of witchcraft related jargon, referring to different spells, ingredients, or tools. The spiritual energy and it's connection to the island's wildlife and foliage is well described throughout the entire novel, to evoke magical and whimsical feelings.

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Characterization: In this play, there is a clear and intentionally set line between the protagonists and antagonists. The main characters like Lear, Gloucester, Edmund, and Cordelia are all known to be less hatred-driven but are strangely left undeveloped fully and not awarded direct sympathy from the readers. The antagonists like Lear's evil daughters and his son Edgar are often given more soliloquys and that is where we learn the truth behind their actions and intentions.
Structure: King Lear begins being structured inside palace walls, introducing characters, their motives, and the drama that involves them. The first half is set up for the reader to fully understand the extent of Lear's privilege and influence, only for the last half to set it back into reality. It ends outside of palace walls mostly in threatening or inconvenient situations for our protagonists. All of this is to show the importance of being thankful for the things you have in the moment.
Setting: This play takes place in Britain, predating both Christianity and the separation of the UK. Though, it starts off inside King Lear's castle rather than his kingdom. Written during the time the current king of Britain was opposed to the separation of his Kingdom, while Lear is intentionally- and unsuccessfully- dividing his.
Figurative Language: Most of the figurative language in plays really has to be extracted from the dialogue since there are no paragraphs of insight given by the author. In King Lear, most of the figurative language used is personification, paradox, and the occasional metaphor. Personification is used often in Shakespearean plays as it creates a driven tone and narrative. In Act 1, Scene 1, King Lear says "Come not between the Dragon and his wrath," and this perfectly opens up to Lear's own illusion of his power.
Narration: Since this is a play, it is told in third person. Although it oddly reveals more about the antagonists of the story, leaving most of Lear and his daughters' points of view untold. Shakespeare's unusual choice of character-development is what sells the whole tone of the play.
Language: What Shakespeare really is known for is his language, and in this play that can definitely be shown. The language used here is to provide a story-line of emotions through Lear's fall from influence and grace. The grandeur and luxury of his palaces are described as to boost the insight on his life before, whereas the grimy streets outside the Kingdom are used to relate the feelings of helplessness and dirtiness that Lear feels after losing all he has. Slowly, he becomes not just depressed and melancholy, but angry and violent. All of this is shown through Shakespeare's language of setting, ulterior motives, and dialogue.

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The Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams - 116

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The Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams - 116

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Characterization: As mentioned in the very first scene by Tom, there are not many characters in this play. All of the main characters belong to a family, and the side characters mostly include gentlemen callers, or irrelevant industry workers. Tom, the main character is young man working at a local warehouse in order to make money for his divorced mother, Amanda, and unmarried older sister, Laura. While Tom is making sacrifices for the women in his life, he dreams of leaving his mundane factory job and doing something adventurous. Laura, on the other hand, just really wants a man to fall in love with her. Their mother, Amanda, plays a strong role in this play as she's constantly forcing her children to do things they are uncomfortable with, and overall using them as a way to benefit herself from having to work.
Structure: The most obvious part of the The Glass Menagerie's structure is that it's written as a play. The first part is just the narration of Tom, describing the setting and situation of the family that is to unfold. Then, it is pretty evenly paced from there. It it set up for Tom to live out the same end as his father, getting sick of his mother and leaving with no goodbye.
Setting: The Glass Menagerie takes place in St. Louis, Missouri during the 1930s. The play occurs mostly in the family's small apartment but also visits other sets periodically including the warehouse where Tom works. The setting is really important to the story line as during the depression, it was much harder to find work and make money to feed a family, especially when there's only one man in the household. This also sets up the plot-line of Laura's stress to find a "gentlemen caller" as during the time, women weren't much if not married.
Figurative Language: In every piece of writing, there are a variety of different uses of figurative language. In this play, the most obvious and repetitive use of it is metaphor. The biggest examples of metaphor include Laura's glass unicorn (a symbol for her not fitting in and being a "freak" in society), and Tom's obsession with the movies (as he even states is just a way to live out his dreams of adventure.) Laura's unicorn is a representation of how she feels in the world, different from everybody else around, like the glass unicorn is from the glass horses. It also plays a role when Jim visits, after flirting and dancing with Laura, the unicorn is knocked over and its horn is broken off. This represents Laura truly being the same as anyone else at her core, and that being herself just requires confidence and trust; "Now he will feel more at home with the other horses, the ones that don't have horns." (Williams, 102) Although, it can be said that the whole glass menagerie is a metaphor for the fragile and slightly broken family, hence why that ended up being the name of the play.
Narration: This play is technically narrated by Tom, although being a play does require it to be in third person. Knowing that it is "written" or presented by Tom though, and from the excerpts of which are from his point of view, the reader can't be sure whether or not it is being wrote to the extent of what he knows as truth. In other words, Tom could be exaggerating his mothers behavior or even romanticizing his father in an untrue light. Although it is written as a story, it can be said that it is only one side of the story. We can conclude from the opening soliloquy that the man does have a flare for the dramatic, and so it makes sense to assume that not all of The Glass Menagerie was narrated in good taste. Especially given Tom's obvious dislike for his mother.
Language: Being a period piece makes the language of The Glass Menagerie very important. Reading it in a year like 2021 is a little shocking, actually, considering how differently we use language now. The setting was during the depression in St. Louis, and racism was still running rampant, along with misogyny. This play includes lots of violent language towards women and even makes mention of "[having] to send the [n-word] over to bring in extra folding chairs from the parish house." (Williams, 4) There's also just the obvious differences like the phrases used and slang terms, considering this was set in Missouri, they did have accents. A huge part of the language in this play also includes Tom's narration and the way he describes not just the household, but his mother and sister as well. Although none of it is seemingly written in a sad way, the mundane and barren descriptions and the distasteful way everything is presented does affect the reader's opinion on what could be considered just a normal but dysfunctional family.

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Trixie and Katya's Guide to Modern Womanhood - Trixie  Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova - 220

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Trixie and Katya's Guide to Modern Womanhood - Trixie  Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova - 220

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Characterization: This book really only includes two characters which are the narrators; Trixie and Katya. It's written as a sort of autobiography so there's no way to describe them in a book character sense but they are drag queen so in that sense they are already characters. Trixie grew up in rural Wisconsin with a homophobic community and a very poor family, his real name is Brian Firkus, and he currently lives in LA, ever since being casted on two seasons of the TV reality show Rupaul's Drag Race, and winning the latter which was an All Stars season. Katya's real name is also Brian, and similarly was casted with Trixie the first time - Season 7-  but after returning for a separate All Stars season, did not win her second try.
Structure: This book is divided into three sections: Beauty and Style, Homemaking, and Relationships. All of these have sub-chapters dedicated to that subject and each one rotates between Trixie and Katya's experiences with each. Some chapters are joint conversation between the two. Most are just written as short memoirs and stories from their past life, that give them an opinion or motive to talk about the said topic.
Setting: This book is written in sections of small memoirs so it doesn't really take place anywhere. But it was written in 2019, and most of the stories take place during the early 2000s or 90s, in Wisconsin or New York.
Figurative Language: This book is packed full of figurative language, it's hard to pinpoint all the different types used since the most accurate answer would probably be "all of them." But, them most prominent and memorable are ironicism, personification, and litotes. Most drag queens are very saracastic, and irony and litotes are the perfect way to get sarcasm across in a comedic way in writing. These queens know very well how to tell a story and use parts of speech to further make that story interesting. One of my favorite quotes from the book uses a simile; "Vodka is like Katya...Russian, low calories, and made of old potatoes." (Mattel, 79) This might not be a necessarily smart or artistic way of using a simile, but it sure is entertaining to read.
Narration: The two narrators of this book are also the two main characters, and since it's written in first person, the reader gets to know a lot about them. Autobiographies are very intimate, and they tend to invoke emotions of relatability or sympathy a lot easier than a book or novel written in third person or even first person. Since so much is written in a humorous but nostalgic way, it gives the reader the chance to really understand their point of view and develop a sense of closeness to the story.
Language: As mentioned before, this book was written in 2019, and by two drag queens, so it does use similar language to the kind we hear everyday. That is part of what makes this book very easy to digest. Lots of pop culture, history, and political references are made along the way. Since most chapters are written by one person, it flows evenly with only one perspective or opinion. This book also does include lewd language during some parts, (once again, written by drag queens) but nothing is vulgar or insensitive enough to stray a teen audience away.