We All Fall Down

"We All Fall Down” is set in what we quickly be acquainted with as contemporary American suburbia. Cormier testifies the reality a reflective contemporary society to be evident within actions and societies flaws. The novel exemplifies the complexity of violence, alcoholism and importance of family, through the exploitation of juxtaposition, symbolism, irony, emotive language and colloquial language and third-person. Foremost Cormier identifies Contemporary issues that young people deal with and inter-twines them into the events of the story by using characters that the audience can correlate with. He does so in a very delicate approach and it helps provide a foundation for the story and build tension in diverse scenes.

The rising apprehension of violence is present throughout the novel. Violence is portrayed from beginning, as the group of teenage delinquents frantically vandalise and trash the Jerome residence. It is then revealed that this is the avenger’s observation, and Cormier uses dramatic irony which allows the readers to follow the avengers hunt for the trashers. The trashing is made believable through the use of emotive colloquial language “they shit on the floors and pissed on the wall”. This enables the readers predict the destruction, and uses short truncated sentences to give a rapid pace of the events throughout the novel. This advocates that in society there is no place that is ultimaly safe. Subsequently Cormier presents the time of the trashing “9.02… 9.48am” to display that the novel is in chronological, emphasising the process and order of what the trashers

...