Literary Devices in The Dark Is Rising
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Will and his family live in the middle of nowhere in England. This sets a placid stage, making the adventure that leaps into our main man's life all the more exciting given its contrast to his surr...
Narrator Point of View
In The Dark is Rising, we're told the story by someone who knows everything—including characters' thoughts—but never appears. The technical term for this is third person omniscient; the narrato...
Genre
This book has quest written all over it. Not only is our main character, Will, on a quest for pretty much the entire story, he is even told outright that he's going on a quest by Merriman: "It is y...
Tone
Reading this book is like watching The Ring or The Cabin in the Woods: You can't put it down, but you're also scared to keep reading. Why? The tone of Cooper's writing is the equivalent of that slo...
Writing Style
Will is on a quest to find secret Signs, so it should come as no surprise that a lot of the writing is suspenseful. We're given just enough clues to know something is happening without being able t...
What's Up With the Title?
Usually when a book is part of a series, we try to sort out the significance of the titles for both the series and the particular installment. But in the case of The Dark is Rising, the series is n...
What's Up With the Ending?
After rooting for Will through every high and low on his journey, we get to see him defeat the Dark. Okay, we actually get to see the Hunter do it, but that's just fine with us since Will's only el...
Tough-o-Meter
Don't get us wrong. The Dark is Rising has a straightforward plot and won't bog you down with a lot of big words or complex sentence structures, but it still packs a hefty punch. Why? For starters,...
Plot Analysis
Happy Birthday, Old One It's Will's eleventh birthday, but instead of celebrating getting closer to official teenagedom, he finds out that he's actually an Old One. Thing is, we're actually not ta...
Trivia
Author Susan Cooper remembers reading inside to block out the noise of the air raids in London during World War II. (Source)There was a lizard on Susan Cooper's typewriter when she wrote The Dark i...
Steaminess Rating
You can count the steamy scenes in this book on exactly no fingers. Will is only eleven, for crying out loud, so grab your grandma and start a book club with her by reading this book. There aren't...
Allusions
Discovery of Witchcraft (6.68)Malleus Maleficarum (6.68)Noah's Ark (11.121)King Edward VI (8.63)"Here We Go a Wassailing" (5.78)"O Come All Ye Faithful" (8.75)