The Hour of the Star Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory

Of course it's a symbol—it appears in the stinkin' title. But the narrator is careful to tell us not to get excited: don't "expect stars in what follows, he says, "for nothing will scintillate" (...

Occasionally, Macabéa hears the crow of a cockerel, a young rooster: "From time to time, the girl was lucky enough to hear a cockerel welcome the dawn" (3.71). It's strange to hear a rooster crowi...

The word "bang" appears nineteen times in the text, and not in any sort of context like a sentence, either. Instead, they're little interjections, words that erupt into the text when something impo...

To get the full effect of this book, you really need to make an iTunes playlist of every depressing song you've ever (legally) downloaded and then sit down to read while it plays in the background....

Why a yellow Mercedes? Why not blue or green, or a nice classy silver? Well, some scholars think that the yellow Mercedes represents Hans, the blond European man promised to Macabéa by Madame Carl...