Literary Devices in The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
The College of Lucidity is where it's at. The men of the College investigate whatever scholarly pursuit they want; they hold parties; Octavian and Cassiopeia hold court like royalty.But even so, th...
Narrator Point of View
Why So Distant?Octavian may be our main guy, but even he's kind of at a distance from the whole story. That's because he's narrating his childhood from the perspective of an older guy. For this rea...
Genre
Young Adult Literature; Coming-of-Age; Historical Fiction; War DramaYoung Adult LiteratureOctavian Nothing isn't just classified as young adult literature because the young adult gods say so—it e...
Tone
When we say the tone of this book is serious, we're, um, totally serious. The tone in this read is so seriously serious, that you might even refer to it as having gravitas… which—as all fancy L...
Writing Style
Tell it Like it WasThis book is wordy. Like really, really, really, really, really wordy. (See? We can be wordy too.)But joking aside (sorry to disappoint—we know we've got a killer sense of humo...
What's Up With the Title?
Before we get started, we figure we should write the title out in all its glory, since it's so long that mostly we just refer to the book as Octavian Nothing.Ready, Shmoopsters? Here it is: The Ast...
What's Up With the Ending?
Let's get one thing crystal clear before we do any further: There isn't an actual ending to this book since it's only the first volume in a two-volume series. So if you're looking for the typical p...
Tough-o-Meter
If you think young adult = easy read, then think again. Not only is this book several hundred pages long, but it's also written in 18th-century English. No joke—M.T. Anderson spent years reading...
Plot Analysis
The College of Lucidity, or the Garden of Eden, Boston-styleAn
18th-century, old school, philosophical think tank called the College
of Lucidity takes in a teenaged, pregnant slave girl, who goes...
Trivia
Popeye ate spinach… and M.T. Anderson chomps on broccoli when he's writing. Green veggies: the secret to literary muscles.
(Source.)
M.T. Anderson "gets weepy" about Election Day—that's how muc...
Steaminess Rating
Though the book features a major babe, a serious flirtation, and a love triangle in the first half, Anderson keeps it all pretty harmless. There are all sorts of innuendoes about what could happen,...