The Importance of Literary Devices in the Novel 'Call Me By Your Name'

The novel “Call Me By Your Name” by André Aciman sails through the romance of
a young boy called Elio and his father’s apprentice Oliver. Elio being a shy and introvert
person in his late adolescence is pricked by the restlessness of his age and at the same time
curiosity and burning physical desire. At the onset the novel might seem to be a physical
evidence of a romantic homogenous relationship. However, as the story progresses, the
readers are benefitted with the true essence of love which is deeply addressed in this novel.
No matter whether the relationship is heterogenous or homogenous, the obsession of love of
the young teenager is strong enough to last his lifetime (PTI). The readers are engrossed with
the magnetic power of love. The story strongly emphasizes the magnitude of true love and the
real attachment between two individuals. Though the tenure of love was short but the essence
was everlasting. The novel has a streak of old age mingled along with the modern times. It
expresses the feelings of a young man coming of age and what are the mental conflicts faced
by him. Elio’s love for Oliver faces the endurance of time. Once Oliver leaves after
completing his apprenticeship, there has been a long gap of many years before the two
protagonists meet again. But even then, Elio’s love and attachment for Oliver remained
equally strong over the years. The author has enforced the intermingling of love with the
physical need or desire of a boy in his adolescence. At the same time, the realization of the
formative stages of sexuality and the consciousness of his own body (Brody).
The novel has several underlying themes as is usual in most of the novels. However,
the major theme is based on the concept of love and intimacy and how this changes the nature
of a human being and makes them more open to the world (Jockers and Mimno). Once Elio
develops an intimate relationship with Oliver, he starts analyzing himself and his knowledge
about himself improves. This is proved by the fact that in spite of him having a relationship
with Marzia, he realizes that it is not what he is looking for. Marzia, on the other hand, was
insightful enough to realize that Elio is not true to his sentiments with her. The novel talks

about obsession with love where Elio is completely fascinated by Oliver’s mannerisms and
longs for physical intimacy with the latter. Obsessed with love, Elio’s thoughts were in full
control of his emotions and pulls him towards Oliver and inextricably involves him with the
latter. Again, his obsession has moved him from a state of infatuation to romanticism and
which ultimately punctuated his entire life .
The author does not work on a regular love story of a young man who ultimately
comes out of the circle and carries on with his life. The author here revolves the story about
the young man and how his life revolves around his love life. It also depicts the journey of
Elio’s life with and without Oliver (Biddles). The theme of the story also underlines the
concept of Judaism stemming from the author’s own background. In the novel, Elio’s mother
refers to her family as the “Jews of discretion”. Elio’s family has been shown to be a family
of Jews who are not too explicit about their religion, though there is no attempt of hiding it.
However, Elio grows up to be insecure about his own identity. But, in contrast, Oliver
exposes his Jewish identity with pride and this makes Elio realizes that there is no reason for
being insecure and he can be more comfortable with his identity (Jarbyus).
Another theme, in this novel, is the time, which appears to be relentless, eternal and
without mercy. The novel evokes a sense of eternity. Primarily, the story is narrated in the
past tense as the memoirs of the protagonist’s life and the memories pass by like the
screening of a film, which is always accessible in Elio’s memory, Oliver’s postcard and these
aspects provide a sense of eternity to all the memories of Elio in the novel. The knowledge of
Oliver’s limited stay with Elio’s family looms throughout the novel without any direct
attribution to his departure day. This also helps in enhancing the timelessness of the story and
the memories of Elio (Goldstone and Underwood).

In the novel “Call Me By Your Name”, André Aciman very aptly used the literary
device of Flashback to provide the readers a cinematographic narrative by the protagonist.
The story unfolds in front of the reader in the form of memoirs of a particular summer, in the
life of a young man, when he was in his adolescence. All his memories, his feelings are
expressed in the form of first person (Dallacqua). By using this literary device of flashback,
the author has achieved the mission of expressing the deepest emotions in the protagonist’s
style and have added a feeling of belongingness with the readers. Through this, the author
also creates a background for the story and eventually build up the characters involved by
creating a background of the characters as well. The readers understand the introverted of
Elio in contrast with the confidence and forwardness of Oliver. As a consequence, it was
evident why Elio was hesitant in expressing his feelings toward Oliver and why he resorted to
writing notes rather than speaking directly to Oliver. When using flashbacks, the author
provides a complicated, in depth narrative whereas the straightforward way of narration
would have fashioned the novel a little arid. The characters in the novel evolved over the time
and that is what renders the novel its essence and thickens the plot gradually. The readers are
forced to think about the outcome of the imminent meeting between Elio and Oliver after so
many years. Since the past life of both Elio and Oliver has been presented, thus the tension
mounts or else it would not have created much difference in the thought process of the
readers (Deeb).
In the novel, the literary device of personification has taken an important seat. The
author alludes to personification while discussing nature as well as places. Personification
helps in portraying non – human objects in a way to provide them humane qualities (Luu).
For example, the author had mentioned, “the soft wind trailing exhalations from our garden
up the stairs to my bedroom” in page 18, where the wind has been provided with a humane
quality of breathing. The quotation can be referred to the onset of the summer or it can also