Literary Devices in Inkheart
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Bear with us as we get a little meta here. We're gonna deal with the world of Inkheart (the book we're Shmooping, which looks a lot like our own world plus some magic) and the world of Inkheart (th...
Narrator Point of View
Meggie's our main character, and in chapters devoted to her perspective, we only see things from her viewpoint (but always in the third person, because that's how this book rolls). So for example w...
Genre
Our main character, Meggie, is twelve years old, and we're totally rooting for her as she learns new things about the world and herself in order to overcome the forces threatening her family—yep,...
Writing Style
Inkheart's got a whole lot of metaphors and similes up in it, which makes it pretty fun and lively to read. And in a book where the narrator is pretty matter-of-fact (be sure to read the "Narrator...
What's Up With the Title?
Inkheart is the title of our book… and the book within the book. Gah.Inside our story there's a dude named Fenoglio, who wrote a book that he titled Inkheart because, as he explains it, "Its titl...
What's Up With the Epigraph?
If you are a dreamer, come inIf you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,A Hope-er, a Pray-er, a Magic Bean buyer,If you're a pretender, come sit by my fireFor we have some flax-golden tales to spinCome...
What's Up With the Ending?
Let's get the overall plot wrap-up out of the way quick: Capricorn dies.Meggie's mom is back in our world, reunited with Meggie and Mo.Dustfinger goes off a-rovin' (with Farid tagging along).Elinor...
Tough-o-Meter
While Inkheart is about literature, it's not necessarily the most complex literary novel out there. Maybe it's because Meggie (who's twelve) is one of our main protagonists, and so we see a lot of...
Plot Analysis
Girl Meets BookMeggie is a total bookworm who lives with her book-repairer dad, Mo. Her mom's nowhere in the picture. A stranger shows up one night and sparks Meggie's curiosity about a mysteriou...
Trivia
Cornelia Funke researched and outlined Inkheart for about six months before she began to write it. (Source)Funke started as an illustrator, and she began writing so that she could illustrate her ow...
Steaminess Rating
You won't find much in the way of sexy-times in Inkheart. Our main character, Meggie, is only twelve, and has no interest in dating just yet—there are, however, a few references to Capricorn's me...
Allusions
Richard Adams, Watership Down (36.Epigraph; 51.Epigraph)Hans Christian Andersen, The Collected Fairy Tales (42.25, 42.40, 45.3, 45.22,46.3)J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan (14.1, 20.62, 21.7, 29.Epigraph, 29...