Comparing Tigers

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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,

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