50 pages • 1 hour read
The Lives of Animals
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Frame Narrative
A frame narrative, or a frame story, is a narrative that tells or reveals the central narrative in literature. Frame narratives typically use a narrator who is a character within the novel, experiencing their own story, to narrate the events surrounding the novel’s protagonist. This often takes the form of a character (sometimes the protagonist) recounting a tale to another character, wherein the tale being recounted is the focus of the text. The initial narrative line is delivered by an external narrator, Coetzee. Coetzee has a limited omniscient perspective. The narration is considered limited because it is given from John’s perspective. Elizabeth becomes a non-traditional secondary narrative during her long segments of dialogue in her lectures, answers, and debate responses.
The use of frame story is a genre convention within metafiction. The frame story becomes more complex in the fact that The Lives of Animals was first presented as lectures; Coetzee’s delivery of the lectures is a frame narrative for the story of The Lives of Animals, which itself contains the frame narrative of Elizabeth’s family life through which we receive her lectures.
Figurative Language
Elizabeth uses figurative language throughout her lectures and answers. Her use of figurative language reflects her career as an author as well as the allegorical interpretation of the text—the importance of literature.
The most prominent use of figurative language is delivered through the analogy of the Holocaust and Abraham’s reaction. While there are parts of the analogy that Elizabeth intends as literal, the comparison of animals and Jewish individuals is meant as figurative. He writes in his note that “If Jews were treated like cattle, it does not follow that cattle are treated like Jews. The inversion insults the memory of the dead” (49). Stern’s interpretation suggests that he represents individuals who are not adept at interpreting figurative language and, thereby, who do not appreciate the importance of literature.
Dialogue
The author relies heavily on dialogue as a literary device. Most of the text is presented as dialogue, either through Elizabeth’s lectures or through conversations including the debate. The use of dialogue allows Elizabeth to become a narrator through large blocks of uninterrupted speech.
Dialogue as a literary device was first used by Plato in describing Socrates’s works. Elizabeth directly discusses Plato, and she scorns reason while also employing the Socratic method. This, in turn, reflects Elizabeth’s feelings of not fitting in with society which are symbolized in her direct comparison to Red Peter. Dialogue is heavily associated with the ability to sympathize through Elizabeth’s takedown of Plato and use of the Socratic method of dialogue.
Unlock all 50 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By J. M. Coetzee
