Child by Tiger by Thomas

¶ … Child by Tiger" by Thomas Wolfe and "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell

A comparison

Premise/Thesis

Statement of points

"the Child by Tiger"

"The Most Dangerous Game"

The two short stories that will be analyzed in the following essay are one of the most significant works for the two authors in which they focus on human behavior, its evolution and roots of good and evil.

Premise/Thesis

Although set in totally different settings, the two books share this common denominator and are excellent readings for better understanding of why some men rely more on their instinct and less on their reason. A number of similarities can be found between the main character of Wolfe's story and General Zaroff from Connell's story and in what regards some parts of the plot, yet differences are significant in what regards the structure and construction of the plays, the narrative typology and also the role they aim to play for the reader.

B. Summary

The essay will start with a short summary of each story in which the most important sections will be discussed, followed by an analysis of similarities and differences between the two.

II. Body

A. "The Child by Tiger"

"The Child by Tiger" by Thomas Wolfe is a short story that looks at the life of a black person, Dick Prosser in a world of mixed racial feelings and behaviors. Dick's behavior in society is remarkable, as he has developed a large number of skills that help him find a better role in a racially driven world. The story is told by a person named Spangler who recounts the events that happened twenty-five years before in the South of the U.S. The storyteller, who interacted with Dick Prosser and admired him, tells a story without giving too much explanation for the facts. One day, Dick starts killing people without a clear reason or focus, from police officer to fellow blacks. He is later on killed with more than three hundred shots by a raging mob of white, despite the pleas of the mayor and other people. Arguably, the reasons that were behind his violent actions lie in the constant discrimination he faced and the lack of hope that this would go away and that he would be accepted as a normal citizen, and not a sub-human ghetto one. One could say that the racist pressures that society inflicted on him transformed Dick Prosser from the honest person he was into the exact image and stereotype that society saw him. The story is in itself a memory of Spangler that tries to better understand what and why happened twenty five years before and, therefore, the narrative style is sometimes discontinued and less chronological that Connell's story.

B. "The Most Dangerous Game"

In a more adventure like story, Connell offers the image of evil as well, but from another standpoint. A more calculated and rigorous evil, based not of reason but on emotions, is General Zaroff's view on the pleasures of hunting. The story starts when Sanger Rainsford, a famous hunter, fells into the waters of Brazil and is forced to find shelter on an island. He eventually finds a palace where he meets General Zaroff and his servant Ivan. After a pleasant dinner, Zaroff confesses that he has taken the liberty to hunt for more than animals, and has indulged himself in hunting shipwrecked sailors, offering them a three day chance to get away from his guns and dogs. The conflict appears when Rainsford refuses to join the general in such a hunting experience and is therefore forced to survive in the jungle and kill the general and his help. By using various hunting tricks, he manages to kill Ivan and injure Zaroff, making him believe he has killed himself by jumping off a cliff. The story ends with Rainsford winning a fight to the death with Zaroff and getting to use his bed, as a prize for staying alive and winning the game.

Comparing the two stories, the most striking difference lies in the type of story: the first one is a series of memories of a younger boy that tells a story and slowly realizes some of the implications of what he has seen twenty five years before. The second one has a fluid narrative story line, with a clear beginning and end. Other differences can be found in the way characters are described, with a more contemplative approach for Wolfe and a more action oriented for the second one. From a literary point-of-view, one of the main differences is that Wolfe presents an interpretative story and Connell an escape literature piece.

Discussing similarities, the two stories deal in different ways with the same perennial question of good and evil and how one gets to be one or the other. In both stories, two men go from reason-based individuals to instinct based and brutal behaviors. Their reasons are different yet the fundamental question of how one gets to being pure evil is found in both texts. Societal pressures on the one, and lack of purpose in the other create two monsters. Both authors strike an important aspect of human behavior: evil is found in all of humans and it all depends on how well it is kept in balance with the "good." Evil in both stories is ambiguous and shows that it doesn't require the presence of many to create it and that it can develop both in the middle of large communities as on an empty island.