Analysis
This section highlights the main elements of our analysis of the story “She’s the Bomb” by T. Coraghessan Boyle.
The story’s structure is linear and it features narrative techniques such as backstories and foreshadowing. The story mostly recounts a period in Hailey Phegler’s life when she lies about attending college and calls in a bomb threat on her graduation ceremony.
The story features a number of characters, but Hailey Phegler is clearly the main character, because the entire story is focused on her struggles at college and the outcome of her drastic response to them.
The events take place in contemporary America. The social setting explores the condition of young people in modern society.
The events are described mostly by an omniscient third-person narrator, but the point of view occasionally changes to text messages in the first person.
The language mixes narration with dialogue, which helps the reader understand more about the characters and the events. It also includes informal language intended to resemble text messages between the protagonist and an unknown person.
You can find a full analysis of the story in the following pages.