Lit Analysis #8

The Loved One General 1. The plot of the novel is that a woman, Aimee, is stuck in love between two men, Dennis and Mr. Joyboy. Dennis Barlow is an English poet who works at a pets cemetery. He falls in love with Aimee, but has a poor way of showing affection. Mr. Joyboy works at a human cemetery, and he works with Aimee. He also falls in love with her, but he shows his love to her. Aimee becomes conflicted about who to choose as her husband because she loved both men, but in different ways. In the end she commits suicide as her final decision. 2. The theme of the novel to me to point out imperfection. Aimee realized the imperfections in both men which made who decision to choose even harder. She found out that Dennis worked at a pet cemetery and that he copied other poets. Mr. Joyboy's flaw was that he was in a way a momma's boy. 3. The tone I took away from the story was confusion. Everything seemed so complicated for all the characters. Neither men knew who would get to keep Aimee for themselves, and Aimee was confused about who to pick. 4. One literary element is style. The story is told in third person with a very dramatic point of view. Syntax was also included by the way the author added excerpts from poems into the story. Also the diction because sometimes it was written in old time English when reading the poems. The dialogue would change too from Aimee talking to Dennis in a casual form and to Mr. Joyboy in a more proper way. Finally the point of view being dramatic from Aimee's side. Characterization 1. The author uses direct characterization in expressing Dennis' love for Aimee. He's very straight forward about it and tells her that he wants to get married. Direct characterization is also used in describing the Hollywood life. People talk of how it's a disgrace for a man like Dennis to work at a pet cemetery. Indirect characterization is used in reading into who Aimee wants to marry. She seemed very indecisive to me. It's also used in revealing that Mr. Joyboy lives with his mom because he seemed like the type of man who would live on his own in a nice house. 2. There was a small change in diction because Aimee spoke to Dennis very casually and then would talk to Mr. Joyboy more properly. 3. The protagonist, Dennis, was dynamic because he went from lying about his work to loving Aimee and admitting his faults. In the end he writes a poem for her like she'd always wanted because he truly loved her. 4. I definitely came away feeling like I'd met the characters. I felt most connected to Aimee because I felt so bad for her in having to make the decisions that she was forced to make.