Miss Lonelyhearts
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Key Facts
full title · Miss Lonelyhearts
author · Nathanael West
type of work · Novel
genre · Depression-era novel; epistolary; black comedy
language · English
time and place written · Early 1930s, New York
date of first publication · April 1933
publisher · New Directions
narrator · Third-person narrator
climax · Doyle shoots Miss Lonelyhearts on the stairwell
protagonist · Miss Lonelyhearts
antagonist · Shrike; the modern world
setting (time) · 1930s
setting (place) · Primarily New York City, with an interlude at a farm in Connecticut
point of view · Third person, focusing on the experiences of Miss Lonelyhearts
tense · Immediate past tense, though the letters are usually in the present tense
tone · Stark, journalistic, tragic
themes · The failure of Christian faith and Miss Lonelyhearts's Christ complex; literary frustration and castration; the Great Depression and the illusion of the American Dream
motifs · Newspaper form; the sterile, violent, and disordered environment; Miss Lonelyhearts's sickness and resurrection
symbols · The stone; the lamb
foreshadowing · Miss Lonelyhearts notes he will get sick if he thinks about Christ in the first episode
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