Literary Devices in Shooting the Moon
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Fort Hood Army Base, TexasIt's all about that base… the army base, that is. Jamie and her family live on the army base so her dad (a.k.a. the Colonel) can do his job. Listen to the way she descri...
Narrator Point of View
First Person (Central)—OmniscientWe know what you're thinking. A first person (a.k.a. using "I") narrator of a teen book? How original, right? Sigh. Even though that is pretty standard for YA nov...
Genre
Historical Fiction; Young Adult Lit Since the book is set during history (that is, real events), but it's about fictitious characters, we call it historical fiction. Sure, this could have happened...
Tone
Energetic Yet Ominous Remember show and tell? Basically, you'd bring in something interesting/weird/gross and talk to your classmates about it. Authors like to apply those same rules to writing. In...
Writing Style
Intimate, Conversational We are like the BFF Jamie never had—or the ones who ditched her when they moved away to different army bases. Jamie talks to us like she knows us; she's incredibly intima...
What's Up With the Title?
You've probably figured out by now that the title—Shooting the Moon—hints at TJ's favorite pastime: photography. He loves taking photos of… wait for it… the moon. Why? It has nooks and cran...
What's Up With the Ending?
When Jamie is close to wrapping things up, we learn that TJ has gone missing in Vietnam. Wait… what? Instead of telling us all the bits and pieces of what happens to TJ over there, she brings her...
Tough-o-Meter
(3) Base CampLucky for us, Jamie handles the story telling, and since she's a regular twelve year old, we don't get much political jargon or history lessons. In fact, most of her story is about, we...
Plot Analysis
Off to War When TJ gets sent to fight in the Vietnam War only a few weeks after enlisting in the army, his family is shocked—it happens so soon. Jamie, on the other hand, is thrilled. War is all...
Trivia
Is it tough for you to write first drafts of a paper? Join the club. Author Frances O'Roark Dowell finds sitting down to write really hard sometimes, even though she's an author. In fact, she has a...
Steaminess Rating
GLet's face it: Jamie isn't thinking about sex at all. It's more her mom who worries about that kind of thing, and even then, we only get a glimpse of this when we hear that she isn't stokes about...
Allusions
Literary and Philosophical ReferencesPride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (8.29)Historical ReferencesThe Vietnam War (1.1, 1.12; 2.21; 5.23, 5.26; 9.1, 9.9)General George Patton (8.21)General MacArth...