Literary Terms

Agatha Christie writes her novels using many different literary terms. In doing so, her stories seem more complex and developed. She also uses multiple literary terms to entice the reader. Three of these are conflict, flashback, and setting.

A setting is where a book takes place. Agatha Christie wrote And Then There Were None taking place on Turtle Island. Throughout the book it has different locations on the island, such as the beach or the house. In the book it also explains that the setting is very critical to the story. In the book it says how there are a lot of parties & happenings going on the island and it didn’t seem odd to the people when they said it was being occupied for an experiment. It makes the book more interesting because an island is a very private sort of space. It would make it seem easier for murder.

Writers use conflict to outline a central problem. In “And Then There Were None” the conflict is an unknown mystery dealing with ten people stuck on an island with a sadistic murder. In the story there are many conflicts. They are unaware of who the murder is. In the past they have all dealt with unusual deaths. None of the guests know each other so it’s hard to trust each other. Agatha Christie creates a deeper conflict throughout the use of these unknowns. A flashback is a disruption from the current time in the book, a moment to look back or reflect on a situation that happened earlier in the story. Agatha Christie uses many flashbacks in her story. All of the characters have dealt with murder, as I said before. In the story they eventually go insane as people are being murdered. When they begin to think of the murders they have been involved in, they have memories. In the book it gives flashbacks and explains in detail what goes on at the time. An example of flashback in the book would be when Vera Claythorne was being accused of the murder for Cyril Hamilton’s drowning when she was watching him.

These are three of the