Comparing Tigers

901 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The Tyger by William Blake poem analysis

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? This is the first stanza of William Blake's famous poem, "The Tyger" which is also featured as the opening paragraph in "The Child by Tiger", a short story by Thomas Wolfe. In the narrative, a seemingly kind, gentle, and religious African American male named Dick Prosser goes on a vicious rampage after drinking excessively and getting in a fight with his love interest's husband (Wolfe 735). At the end of the story, a large mob made up of vengeful White people seeking justice against the "crazed Negro" tracks him down to a riverbank, where Dick awaits them with his shoes at his side and a firearm squeezed dry of ammunition (739). His stalkers gun him down, hang his lifeless body from a tree, pump him full of 300 bullets, and take his mutilated corpse back to down where he is hung in an undertaker's display window for all to see and enjoy (739). What one may not realize while begin to read this story, is that the excerpt from the Blake poem that precedes the tale actually foreshadows the theme. The tiger spoken of in the poem represents the beast that is inside all men. When provoked, a tiger can mutilate and destroy another creature, much like how Dick Prosser's character lashes out and drops bodies all over town with a repeating rifle and hundreds of rounds of bullets (735). "The Child by Tiger" serves as an example that one can only be pushed so far and be put through so much insignificant mental and physical torment before they snap and fight back against their demeaning community. Dick Prosser was treated as something less of a human by the people surrounding him. The reason he sought vengeance ... ... middle of paper ... ...action of stabbing Jesus Christ in the ribs with a spear, while he was already on the cross, to make sure he has passed on. Thomas Wolfe has written a controversial tale dealing with the sensitive subject of racial segregation. Not only does the story project to its readers an extreme scenario of how far racism and treating others in a demeaning manner can go and teach a valuable life lesson, but the narrative was entertaining as well. Using colorful language, graphic detail, and a Christ figure that everyone could relate to, Wolfe has created an account to be proud of and pass down to further generations of readers as a disturbing example. Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? Work cited: Wolfe, Thomas. "The Child by Tiger." Perrine's Story and Structure. Tenth edition. Ed. Thomas R Arp. Australia: Thompson Heinle, 2002,

Show More
Related

  • The Watsons Go to Birmingham, by Christopher Paul Curtis

    2133 Words  | 5 Pages

    Christopher Paul Curtis wrote The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 throughout the course of 1995. The novel follows the Watsons, a black family living in Flint, Michigan during the Civil Rights Era. In a historical context, 1963 and the early 1990s have far more in common than one would expect. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 following the church bombing in Birmingham, and yet race-based discrimination remains a problem even in our modern society via passive racism. This paper will analyze the ways in which Curtis’ The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 draws parallels between the time in which his is writing during and the time in which he is writing about. This analysis will also shed light on what can be called the “white standard,” wherein all things white are “good” or “better” and anything not-white is “bad.”

    Read More

  • Suffering and Struggle in Sonny´s Blues by James Baldwin

    1195 Words  | 3 Pages

    The transition of being a black man in a time just after slavery was a hard one. A black man had to prove himself at the same time had to come to terms with the fact that he would never amount to much in a white dominated country. Some young black men did actually make it but it was a long and bitter road. Most young men fell into the same trappings as the narrator’s brother. Times were hard and most young boys growing up in Harlem were swept off their feet by the onslaught of change. For American blacks in the middle of the twentieth century, racism is another of the dark forces of destruction and meaninglessness which must be endured. Beauty, joy, triumph, security, suffering, and sorrow are all creations of community, especially of family and family-like groups. They are temporary havens from the world''s trouble, and they are also the meanings of human life.

    Read More

  • Prejudice Explored in "Black Boy" by Richard Wright

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    In a country full of inequities and discrimination, numerous books were written to depict our unjust societies. One of the many books is an autobiography by Richard Wright. In Black Boy, Wright shares these many life-changing experiences he faced, which include the discovery of racism at a young age, the fights he put up against discrimination and hunger, and finally his decision to move Northward to a purported better society. Through these experiences, which eventually led him to success, Wright tells his readers the cause and effect of racism, and hunger. In a way, the novel The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle illustrates similar experiences.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Hunger In Richard Wright's Black Boy

    549 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the autobiography Black Boy by Richard Wright, Wright’s defining aspect is his hunger for equality between whites and blacks in the Jim Crow South. Wright recounts his life from a young boy in the repugnant south to an adult in the north. In the book, Wright’s interpretation of hunger goes beyond the literal denotation. Thus, Wright possesses an insatiable hunger for knowledge, acceptance, and understanding. Wright’s encounters with racial discrimination exhibit the depths of misunderstanding fostered by an imbalance of power.

    Read More

  • Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chua, Amy. Battle hymn of the tiger mother . New York: Penguin Press, 2011. Print.

    Read More

  • Essay On Racism By Brent Staples

    1694 Words  | 4 Pages

    Staples’ claim is made clear through the series of chronological anecdotes that make up his essay. The snippets of his life range from a short story about crossing a street at night in Chicago to being mistaken for a burglar while rushing into his office to turn in a deadline story - all because of the color of his skin. The anecdotes in his essay are meant to show the reader what to believe instead of merely telling them. Staples has a clear reason for writing and has strong beliefs about racism, however the stylistic devices he uses are meant to guide the reader into developing their own opinion on racism, which Staples in turn knows will persuade. Instead of stating his biased opinion from the start, he invites the reader in through his stories, even though the images themselves are hard to stomach. Staples wisely avoids a...

    Read More

  • The Golden Spiders Movie and a Recurring Theme of Marxism

    1419 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nero Wolfe novels are remarkably known for their theme of good versus evil, rich versus poor, and powerful versus weak. The Golden Spiders by Rex Stout was remade into made for television movie, the plot of the movie very closely follows that of the novel. Wealth, inequity, and mistreatment of migrants are central themes within the novel and it is also prevalent in other Nero Wolfe novels. It is the very typical proletariat versus the bourgeois, the primary argument for Marxist thought. The oppressed poor being manipulated by the rich upper class. It is undoubtedly evident that Wolfe had a soft spot for other immigrants and it would be essential to question if this was because Wolfe was an immigrant himself. This essay will discuss how the movie plot adheres closely to Marxist thesis, how the movie compares to the novel, and if Nero Wolfe’s status as a immigrant affected how he treated other immigrants within the storyline.

    Read More

  • "A Southern Mode of the Imagination" and Thomas Wolfe

    1927 Words  | 4 Pages

    _____. “The Child by Tiger.” Saturday Evening Post 210, number 11. Reprinted in The Complete Short Stories of Thomas Wolfe, edited by Francis E. Skipp. New York: Scribner’s, 1987.

    Read More

  • Thomas Wolfe's The Child by Tiger

    483 Words  | 1 Pages

    Prosser is a big man who is admired by the children. As a black man, he is a servant of one of the children but is loved by all the children. He is an excellent shot and shows the children his great marksmanship with a small rifle of one of the children. The children make Prosser sound great because they build him up by how gentle he is with them. The children think of Dick as quoted in the story, " There was nothing he did not know." (Page 627) Teaching them to play football, to make a fire, and even how to box makes him to them seem larger than life. It is easy to like Prosser because of the time he spends with children. Who would like him though the eyes of a child?

    Read More

  • James Baldwin's Stranger in the Village

    892 Words  | 2 Pages

    Baldwin and his ancestors share this common rage because of the reflections their culture has had on the rest of society, a society consisting of white men who have thrived on using false impressions as a weapon throughout American history. Baldwin gives credit to the fact that no one can be held responsible for what history has unfolded, but he remains restless for an explanation about the perception of his ancestors as people. In Baldwin?s essay, his rage becomes more directed as the ?power of the white man? becomes relevant to the misfortune of the American Negro (Baldwin 131). This misfortune creates a fire of rage within Baldwin and the American Negro. As Baldwin?s American Negro continues to build the fire, the white man builds an invisible wall around himself to avoid confrontation about the actions of his ?forefathers? (Baldwin 131). Baldwin?s anger burns through his other emotions as he writes about the enslavement of his ancestors and gives the reader a shameful illusion of a Negro slave having to explai...

    Read More

  • Importance Of Familial Bonds In Octavia Butler's Kindred

    1350 Words  | 3 Pages

    The purpose of this essay is to highlight the issues that Dana, a young African-American writer, witness as an observer through time. As a time traveler, she witnesses slavery and gender violation during 19th and 20th centuries and examines these problems in terms of how white supremacy disrupts black familial bonds. While approaching Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred, this essay analyses how gender and racial violation relates to familial bonds through Dana 's experience in Tom Weylin 's plantation. It is argued that Butler uses pathos, ethos, and in rare cases logos, to effectively convey her ideas of unfairness during the American slavery, such as examining the roots of Weylin’s cruel attitude towards black people, growing conflicts between

    Read More

  • Bigger Thomas as America’s Native Son

    1231 Words  | 3 Pages

    The novel is loaded with a plethora of imageries of a hostile white world. Wright shows how white racism affects the behavior, feelings, and thoughts of Bigger.

    Read More

  • The Ethics of Living Jim Crow an Autobiographical Sketch by Richard Wright

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wright, R. (2001). The ethics of living Jim Crow: An autobiographical sketch. In P. Rothenberg (Ed.). Race, class, and gender in the United States: An integrated study. (5th ed. pp. 21-30). New York: Worth Publishers.

    Read More

  • Book Report I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

    398 Words  | 1 Pages

    What I liked most about this book was the reality it revealed. It showed how brutal and cruel the society was. This book made me realize that racism is deeply embedded in the life and history of the nation, and it still exists in today’s society.

    Read More

  • The Tiger

    1041 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the day a Tiger may rest in the shade, or lie in a quiet pool of

    Read More

More about Comparing Tigers

Open Document