Why must a story always have a somewhat violent theme for it
to be engaging? In our daily lives, we tend to stray away from danger and
always root for world peace. On the other hand, when we’re reclining in our
favorite chair, the book we have in our hands is almost always jarringly
disturbing.
“The Child by Tiger,” by Thomas Wolfe, is no exception. I must
admit, the imagery fluff characteristic of prose fiction pieces bored me in the
beginning. It was so ordinary and banal that I skimmed the pages for a while. The
relationship between Dick Prosser and the kids seemed cordial; nothing
suggested that there was anything amiss. Then the tone of the story took a
drastic turn and soon people were dying one after the other. It was definitely
creepy when Dick was able to shoot so accurately- it almost seemed like he was
undefeatable. When the actions of Dick were detailed, I suddenly gave the story
my full attention. Perhaps it was for the mystery of it all. The man seemed
sane in the beginning of the story, and also very religious. It was so
unexpected for him to have an emotional breakdown and take out a rifle. The reasons
are unclear and the way he surrendered even more mysterious.
Overall, I think violence breaks the dullness of a piece that
can seem, in the beginning, much too similar to our lives. Reality, unfortunately, is boring to
live through. It may seem odd, but violence is sometimes our form of entertainment.
I agree with your statement about violence. I'm not quite sure why, but violence as well as action seems to attract people's attention. I think it has to do with how people want to escape from their day to day life, and they do this through reading a violent novel. A violent novel helps them be thankful for what they have and makes them feel better about their own mundane lives.
ReplyDeleteA common complaint about literature that we study is not just violence, but darkness and depression. It seems that almost all "literary" stories are more dark than light. It might be worth thinking about why we are drawn to read these or why authors tend to write about them more.
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