Literary Devices in How I Live Now
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
The English countryside is the setting for Daisy's adventures. Where exactly? We have no idea beyond that it's a drive or bus ride of indeterminate length (Daisy falls asleep en route) from the Lon...
Narrator Point of View
How I Live Now is Daisy's story, the story of how she, a sassy, jaded New York City teenager, came to be living happily in the post-war English countryside with her cousins, an incestuous lover, an...
Genre
In essence, How I Live Now tells the story of Daisy's coming-of-age during World War III in England. Most likely to appeal to those about to come of age themselves, How I Live Now deals with common...
Tone
When Daisy arrives in England, she's a sassy, jaded little teenage punk with attitude, and this comes across in her storytelling, where she constantly compares England to New York. For instance:I'm...
Writing Style
Although Daisy's telling us this story years after the fact, her voice reads like she's sharing her unedited stream-of-consciousness with a close friend, with random capitalization to illustrate th...
What's Up With the Title?
How I Live Now—a.k.a. the title of our book—is coincidentally (okay, probably not a coincidence) also the last line of the book: "And that's how I live now" (2.6.14). So what gives?Until this l...
What's Up With the Ending?
Have you checked out the "What's Up With The Title?" section yet? Because you totally should—the last line of the book includes the title.Daisy's final line, "and that's how I live now" (2.6.14),...
Tough-o-Meter
Fairly short and consisting of more made-up teen-speak words than SAT vocab words, How I Live Now is not a difficult book to get through. Daisy's stream-of-consciousness, talking-to-a-friend style...
Plot Analysis
Supervision-Free UtopiaDaisy and her cousins are living the good life in England, free of school, adult supervision, and other obligations due to the escalating war. This apparent utopia (in a time...
Trivia
In the U.S. version of the movie, an additional line is added to state that Daisy and Edmond aren't actually biological cousins. In the U.K. version, though, they're still totally kissing cousins.&...
Steaminess Rating
It would be hard to rate a book heavily featuring cousins doing the dirty anything less than an R. Daisy's also pretty fond of sharing with the reader how intensely she's lusting for her cousin's l...