Genre 

Young adult novel

Narrator 

Anonymous, external voice

Point of view 

The point of view is third person, reflecting the point of view mostly of the boy.

Tone 

The tone is serious and grave, even dismal at times. Sometimes the tone shifts and takes a spiritual voice.

Tense 

Past tense

Setting (time) 

The book takes place in the nineteenth century.

Setting (place) 

The home of a Southern American sharecropper

Protagonist 

The boy

Major conflict 

The arrest of the boy's father and the disappearance of Sounder.

Rising action 

The boy searches for his father and the boy encounters the teacher.

Climax 

The boy leaves the family's cabin to live with the teacher; the father comes home.

Falling action 

The boy's father dies; Sounder dies.

Foreshadowing 

Sounder comes home injured; the boy talks about people in the Bible always finding that for which they are looking; the boy findsthe book in the trash.