Structural Foils in Dominion by Addie E. Citchens
How Ch. 1 details contrast Ch. 7 details, and the Prologue contrasts the Epilogue.
SPOILER WARNING: PLOT DISCUSSED IN DETAIL
Dominion by Addie E. Citchens has been lauded for its character foiling, especially of Priscilla and Diamond, but I haven’t seen anyone lauding Dominion’s very interesting structural foils yet. So, I’m excited to do just that.
Chapter 1 and Chapter 7 are structural foils, so are the Prologue and the Epilogue.
I got clued into the structural foiling when I noticed an eerie similarity between Sabre’s sermons in Chapter 1 and Chapter 7. He says the same thing from the pulpit, but the context is very different. Take a look at the bolded words below.
June 4, 2000, Ch 1 p 11
“‘Lawd, I got to know: Whoooooooooo is? Who is worthy?’ called Rev. ‘To open up the book of the seven seals?’ crooned the quartet in response.
July 23, 2000, Ch 7 p 168
“‘I want to know who is, who is worthy…’ The quartet picked up the chorus as we found seats at the back.”
While the words are the same, the delivery, messaging, and timing all deeply contrast. This is where the structural foiling comes into play.
Delivery: You can hear it in his voice. Sabre’s “low bass” that’s operatic and full of musicality in June becomes something “sad and hollower” in July.
Messaging: Sabre is proud and “worthy” of the pulpit in June. In July, he is not. He’s stepping down.
Timing: This is a tiny calendar detail, but interesting all the same. Chapter 1’s service is the first one of the month, taking place on the first Sunday. Chapter 7’s is the last service of the month, taking placing on a fourth Sunday. (Services don’t take place on fifth Sundays.)1
Dominion’s Prologue and Epilogue are full of mirroring and symmetry too, but the reflections are distorted in critical ways.
The mirroring details are siblings at a funeral, fulfillments, and pregnancy reflections. I’ve summarized the contrasts that create the foiling below.
Siblings at a Funeral
Priscilla Falls - Prologue: Priscilla tells us the origin story of her limp in the Prologue. As a kid, she was playing funeral with her siblings and fell through the rotted bottom of a wooden box, sustaining a painful, untreated injury to her hip.
Priscilla Falls - Epilogue: In the Epilogue, there is a real funeral, and Priscilla falls down in grief. It is a funeral for her youngest son, Wonder. Wonder’s siblings (Priscilla’s other sons) are present. Diamond is at this funeral too, thinking about her missing siblings, one dead because of Wonder and two she desperately hopes to find.
Pain & Painkillers
Prologue & Epilogue: Diamond is taking some of Pricilla’s “fulfillments” at Wonder’s funeral. Priscilla’s lifelong hip pain (from the childhood funeral game) led to her addiction to “fulfillments.”
Pregnancy Reflections
Prologue & Epilogue: At the end of the prologue, Priscilla thinks about being pregnant with and birthing Wonder. At the end of the epilogue, Diamond reflects on her pregnancy with Wonder’s child and her decision to end the pregnancy.
Extra: Does Diamond open a version of the scroll with seven seals at the end?
At the beginning of Dominion, Sabre preaches a story of worthiness from Revelation 5: 1-3, specifically how no one in any realm (heaven, earth, or hell) is worthy of opening up “the book of the seven seals'“ and looking inside it.
In the final paragraph of the book, it really struck me that Diamond tells us about how she opened and looked at the Joker’s notebook—which only she has access to. This has left me with so many lingering, lovely questions as I closed the book:
Is the Joker’s notebook akin to the scroll of the seven seals?
If Diamond possesses a version of the scroll Sabre talked about and can open it and read it, does that mean she is uniquely powerful and worthy of knowledge? What power? What knowledge? What does that ultimately mean?
Easily, the most satisfying part of my Dominion rereading experience was noticing foils, especially the structural ones. I hope you enjoyed these contrasts as much as I did and please let me know, Did you notice any more?
My next Dominion project comes from
& — I heard this on their podcast Sylly: A Close Reading of Dominion by Addie Citchens, Sep 24, 2025 and immediately knew I needed to try to do this too. It sounds very rewarding.“I’m really interested in how the contents of the chapter connect to the sermon notes at the beginning of every chapter.”
- Mbiye Kasonga & Tempe Denton Hurst in conversation on the Sylly Podcast
“March 1966 Services expanded to include all Sundays of the month except the fifth.” —The Story of the Seven Seals, p 4
Love this! You just taught me something. I didn’t know what a structural foil was. I haven’t read Dominion yet, but Angela Flournoy does this really well in Wilderness.
I loved reading this! I didn’t notice the structural foils at all. This book has so many good craft moments!