Thursday, September 6, 2012

Literary Devices in 'The Child by Tiger'

The Child by Tiger by Thomas Wolfe got me thinking about all the different literary devices that an author has in his/her arsenal. Similes, metaphors, diction, imagery, hyperbole, ambiguity, euphemism, deux es machina, en media res, flashback, foreshadowing... the list goes on and on!  All authors of literary fiction (and in some cases, commercial fiction) strive to convey a deeper meaning to the reader. This deeper meaning can be a moral or a theme, but it usually is present to allow the reader to view a certain topic from a different perspective. Take The Child by Tiger as an example. The last few paragraphs use a multitude of devices: allusion, ambiguity, and oxymoron (I'm probably missing a bunch!). These devices make the reader pass judgement on what he/she just read. Does the story have a meaning beyond what is superficial? Honestly, when I read Thomas Wolfe's work for homework, I read like a commercial fiction short story. I stormed right through it without taking time to contemplate all that the author had written. It was a mistake. After the discussion last class, I realize that this story was more about how attitudes change when certain actions are undertaken by a man from a different race. This story was set in the pre-civil war era and yet, even though I live in the modern era, I still was racist and biased against Dick Prosser. I did not bother to think about his background, but immediately blamed everything on him. It is sad that I thought this way (something that I've been trying to fix). I believe that Thomas Wolfe's goal with this short story was to make the reader realize that there are two facets in every person in society.

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