Comparing and Contrasting Commercial and Literary Fiction
Many authors and writers write fiction. Fiction can be broken down into two categories: commercial and literary. Commercial fiction is a type of fiction which entertains the reader and takes the reader away from their world. An example of commercial fiction is ”Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell. In Connell’s short story, the reader is immediately enticed with action in a faraway mysterious island. On the other hand, literary fiction puts the reader into a more real-world situation, writing parables that the reader can relate to. One example of literary fiction is “Child By Tiger”, by Thomas Wolfe. This takes place in a suburban town, in the United States. The boys are playing
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catch, and it is an average town with average people, however, this changes later on. These pieces of fiction are alike in the sense that both authors complicate the plot, making the story more interesting for the reader.
and the parables include in life and death struggles that the protagonist has to face. On the contrary, “Most Dangerous Game” has a clear protagonist and antagonist, but in “Child By Tiger”, the reader is not for certain which person is the protagonist and which one is the antagonist and “Most Dangerous Game” has a focus on action, while “Child By Tiger” starts off with minimal action, not entertaining the reader as quickly.
Initially, the two parables are similar in the sense that both stories have a quandary in their plot. Rainsford in “Most Dangerous Game” is facing a dilemma. He has two options, he could either be given supplies, and fight with the antagonist General Zaroff who hunts people for pleasure or he can go to Ivan, Zaroff’s ominous assistant that kills people if they do not wish to play. “...I give him his option, of course. He need not play that game if he doesn't wish to. If he does not wish to hunt, I turn him over to Ivan. Ivan once had the honor of serving as official knouter to the Great White Czar, and he has his own ideas of sport. Invariably, Mr. Rainsford, invariably they choose the hunt” (Connell 9). This shows that Zaroff lets Rainsford choose the way he wants eventually die. Additionally, in “Child by Tiger” one of the protagonists is
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Dick Prosser. Dick Prosser is a neat, african-american, living in a time where there is still segregation. Prosser is an ex-army military soldier, working for the Sheppertons. However, he somehow does not let this get in his way of his regular life. Prosser is a good man, at least until Christmas came along. “Squarely across the bare board table, bule-dull, deadly in its murderous effciency, lay a modern repeating rifle… ‘If you’ll just keep it a supprise from the other white fokes twill Christmas Day, I’ll take all you gent’mun out and let you shoot it’...’It’s--it’s Dick!’ And in a moment, ‘They say he’s killed four people” (Wolfe 731). Dick Prosser lies about the rifle in his room, and shoots people instead of taking the boys out hunting. Both short stories, go from a normal, average type of story, to a bizarre parable that makes the reader want to read on more. In addition, both protagonists in the each novel, Rainsford and Dick Prosser, are faced with life and death struggles. Rainsford must fight Zaroff to save his life. if he does not, he will surely die. Furthermore, Prosser, for an unknown reason, kills four people during the early morning with is rifle, creating an angry mob consisting of local and federal citizens to go after him. Therefore, making these two novellas similar in the sense that there is a certain twist to each of them, as well as, life and death situations. Even though "Most Dangerous Game" and "Child By Tiger" have vast similarities, there are also many differences between the two.
“Most Dangerous Game” has a clear protagonist and antagonist; Rainsford is the protagonist because he is forced by Zaroff, the antagonist, to fight for his life. Whereas, in “Child By Tiger” the reader is not sure who the good main character is, and who the bad main character is. Although almost the entire short story is about Dick Prosser, the reader does not know if Prosser was the good or bad person. Dick Prosser shoots several people for reasons that the reader does not know. Moreover, the crowd that forms when Dick Prosser is discovered, may have also been the protagonist or antagonist. Dick Prosser may have had a reason to kill these people, but the citizens just did not understand. The difference between the short stories are being that “Most Dangerous Game” tells the reader succinctly that Rainsford is the good and Zaroff is the bad, but in “Child By Tiger” the author makes the reader think about which character is good and which one is bad. “Most Dangerous Game” is lives off of action. Throughout the beginning and end of the story, action occurs. Rainsford “... leaped upon the rail and balanced himself there, to get greater elevation; his pipe, striking a rope, was knocked from his mouth. He lunged for it; a short, hoarse cry came from his lips as he realized he had reached too far and had lost his balance. The cry was pinched off short as
the blood-warm waters of the Caribbean Sea dosed over his head” (Connell 2). The action that occurs in the story entices the reader to continue reading. On the other hand, in “Child By Tiger” the story starts with a group of young boys playing catch when the Shepperton's worker, Dick Prosser, shows up and teaches them how to throw and catch. Spangler, the narrator of the story states that “The ball rolled away from me down toward the corner. I was running out to get it when Dick Prosser; Shepperton’s new Negro man, came along, gathered it up neatly in his great black paw and tossed it to me...He knew about football, too, and today he paused, a powerful, respectable-looking Negro man of thirty years or more, and watched us for a moment as we played” (Wolfe 725). To sum up, reading about young boys playing catch with an old african-american man watching them play is not as thrilling as a man falling off a yacht, being stranded on a mysterious island with guns being fired off in the distance. “Most Dangerous Game” and “Child By Tiger” are similar and different in certain key aspects. Both short stories have a complicated plot and a life and death struggle, but in “Most Dangerous Game” there is a clear protagonist and antagonist as well as the fact that the story was built off of action, while “Child By Tiger” had a troubled protagonist and antagonist with not much of a focus on action. Knowing the difference between commercial and literary fiction can help the reader understand the different types writing written by many people as well as providing the reader with certain situations the reader can relate to.
After a basketball game, four kids, Andrew Jackson, Tyrone Mills, Robert Washington and B.J. Carson, celebrate a win by going out drinking and driving. Andrew lost control of his car and crashed into a retaining wall on I-75. Andy, Tyrone, and B.J. escaped from the four-door Chevy right after the accident. Teen basketball star and Hazelwood high team captain was sitting in the passenger's side with his feet on the dashboard. When the crash happened, his feet went through the windshield and he was unable to escape. The gas tank then exploded and burned Robbie to death while the three unharmed kids tried to save him.
Both authors use figurative language to help develop sensory details. In the poem It states, “And I sunned it with my smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles.” As the author explains how the character is feeling, the reader can create a specific image in there head based on the details that is given throughout the poem. Specifically this piece of evidence shows the narrator growing more angry and having more rage. In the short story ” it states, “We are below the river's bed. The drops of moisture trickle among bones.” From this piece of text evidence the reader can sense the cold dark emotion that is trying to be formed. Also this excerpt shows the conflict that is about to become and the revenge that is about to take place. By the story and the poem using sensory details, they both share many comparisons.
“I hunt more dangerous game….” Similarities and differences can appear anywhere, especially in the short story and the movie called The Most Dangerous Game. They have similar, yet different expositions, characters, and plots with conflicts. Many people say that books or short stories are better than movies because of the similarities and differences that are found. Books or short stories are usually more descriptive, informative, and do not stray too far from the central idea or main theme, while movies only fall into one or two of these categories. Movies hardly ever fall into all three categories, however if they do the movies become better. This is not the case with The Most Dangerous Game. One place where movies and short stories have major similarities and differences is at the beginning of the story or the exposition.
In this essay the two masterful short stories, The Interlopers and The Most Dangerous Game, will be analyzed. The purpose of the analysis will be to determine similarities and differences between the two. The powerful messages and ironic comedy create interesting elements in both stories. The most prominent differences between the two short stories are the setting and the language style.
The story The Most Dangerous Game says, “his pipe;striking a rope, was knocked from his mouth. He lunged for it...he realized he reached too far.” When he dropped his pipe he tried to grab for it but reached to far and ended up falling into the sea. The next conflict Rainsford faced was either to play the game with Zaroff or go with Ivan. While reading this story Zaroff says “you'll find this game worth playing.” Rainsford didn’t think he would have to play the game but Zaroff said he either has to play or go with Ivan and be killed. The last conflict Rainsford faced was hiding from Zaroff. The story said, “the job was finished and he threw himself down behind a log 100 feet away.” Rainsford has to be smart when he is hiding, so he built a trap for Zaroff to be stuck under. Finally, during the story Rainsford overcame many
A household is a precious and sensitive system of a group. Everyone has a role and responsibilities and even if someone took a sliver of more than the rest the balance could be broken. In the short-story “The Boat” written by Alistair MacLeod, the mother controls decisions in the house and abuses them even if they are not for the better of the house. She refuses to accept the daughter’s gifts, she discourages her family towards getting a better education and she married their father and pressured him to be a sailor. Though these decisions are what she feels is right, it does not work out for the rest of the family members. The mother’s stubbornness towards change and education caused the state of desperation in the house-hold.
The novel Liars Poker by Michael Lewis is very interesting firsthand account of an inside look into the investment banking world, in particular bond trading at the firm Solomon Brothers in the 1980s. Lewis took an interesting and roundabout way to end up on Wall Street, studying art history at Yale and bombing his interview with Lehman Brothers but he eventually found himself at Solomon Brothers through a lucky encounter with two managing directors wives. Through his book Michael Lewis conveys the inner workings of investment banks in the 1980s to the average person using his own experience at Solomon Brothers. The book goes into Lewis’s own rise in the firm as well as the rise and fall of the entire Solomon Brothers Mortgage department.
Hunting big game animals for sport was a popular pastime with the wealthy classes following World War I. The morality of killing for sport was not questioned in reality, but in this short story the author does question it by taking it a step further and having the protagonist, Sangor Rainsford, hunted by the antagonist, General Zaroff.In a short story full of irony, one of the greatest ironies of Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” is that General Zaroff repeatedly tells Rainsford that he maintains a sense of civilization on his island.
Throughout our lives, it seems when we have no one else to help us, our most challenging problems occur leaving ourselves to use our wit and emotion to persevere. People can have test or a big game where we have teachers and coaches to help us prepare and succeed. However, in the movie, High Noon, a Marshall named Will Kane is faced with a challenge of an arriving Frank Miller looking to kill. In the short story, "The Most Dangerous Game", a hunger named Rainsford is deserted on a island after he fell off his yacht, and he would soon find out a sociopath with the unique taste for hunting down humans was out for him. With the two characters in these suspense-building products somewhat trapped we can take out many lessons and ideas from the action packed movie and short story. The movie, High Noon, and the short story, "The Most Dangerous Game, are alike and at the same time very different.
As the sweltering, hot sun signified the start of a scorching afternoon, a young boy lay in the fields harvesting vegetables for another family. He had been enslaved to perform chores around the house for the family, and was only given very few privileges. While his stomach throbbed with pangs of hunger, he continued cooking meals for them. After the family indulged in the cozy heat from the fireplace, he was the one to clean the ashes. Despite his whole body feeling sore from all the rigorous work he completed, the young boy had been left alone to suffer. As months passed by, he desired independence. He wanted to cook his own food, make his own fire, harvest his own plants and earn money. The lad soon discovered that he needed faith and courage to break away from his restricted environment. When put in a suppressive situation, every person has the aspiration to escape the injustice. This is what Harrison Bergeron and Sanger Rainsford do to liberate themselves from the external forces that govern their lives. Harrison, the main character of “Harrison Bergeron” written by Kurt Vonnegut, is a strong, fourteen year old boy whose talents have been concealed by the government. Growing up in an environment where equality has restricted people’s thinking, Harrison endeavors to change society’s views. Rainsford, the main character of “The Most Dangerous Game” written by Richard Connell, is a skilled hunter who believes that animals were made to be hunted; he has no sympathy for them. Stranded on island with a killer chasing him, he learns to make rational choices. While both Harrison and Ranisford are courageous characters, Rainsford’s prudence enables him to overpower his enemy, whereas Harrison’s impulsive nature results in him being ...
The opening stanzas from William Blake’s poem “The Tiger” in “The Child By Tiger” by Thomas Wolfe help accentuate the theme of the story. They further relate to the passage in which Dick Prosser’s bible was left open to. The stanzas incorporated in the story reveal that with every good is evil.
Sanger Rainsford has to overcome many obstacles he faces to not become what he fears, the hunted. When he is sprinting away from General Zaroff he has to fight the urge to quit, and he has to fight the battle of “The Most Dangerous Game.” He is running from the hounds, Ivan, and General Zaroff, when he arrives at a safe place he thinks about how close he was to becoming what he fears. Nevertheless, Sanger Rainsford out wits everything he has experienced and wins “The Most Dangerous Game.”
In the novel, The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga the main character, is Balram, one of the children in the “darkness” of India. Adiga sheds a new light on the poor of India, by writing from the point of view of a man who was at one time in the “darkness” or the slums of India and came into the “light” or rich point of view in India. Balram’s job as a driver allows him to see both sides of the poverty line in India. He sees that the poor are used and thrown away, while the rich are well off and have no understanding of the problems the poor people must face. The servants are kept in a mental “Rooster Coop” by their masters. The government in India supposedly tries to help the poor, but if there is one thing Adiga proves in The White Tiger, it is that India’s government is corrupted. Despite the government promises in India designed to satisfy the poor, the extreme differences between the rich and the poor and the idea of the Rooster Coop cause the poor of India to remain in the slums.
The conflict with man is quite noticeable in both of the stories. However, The Most Dangerous Game is commercial fiction so the plot is more straightforward. Throughout the story, the protagonist, Rainsford, is ruthlessly hunted by the antagonist: General Zaroff. Rainsford has to continually hide from General Zaroff. There even comes a point in the story when Rainsford has to kill General Zaroff’s henchman, Ivan,
Generally speaking, the two most frequently used genres in literature are fictional and non-fictional. Having said this, fictional and non-fictional literature are distinct regarding their purpose as well the literary devices they use. Literary devices are specific language methods which writers use to form text that is clear, interesting, and unforgettable. Fictional literature, for instance, is something that is made up; however, non-fictional is factual. Furthermore, non-fictional works of literature such as literary essays usually convey a message using literary devices that differ than those used in fictional literature such as short stories, which are meant to amuse its readers. Literary essays uses literary devices such as description,