Edgar Sawtelle: A Literary Analysis

In the novels The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and The Perfect Storm, the authors express their respective themes through the use of specific literary features. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, a work of fiction written by David Wroblewski, tells the story of a mute boy named Edgar growing up on a dog-breeding farm. Edgar’s family struggles to communicate with him, and, because of this, he creates a life of solitude where it’s just him and his dog. Edgar also struggles with the task of proving that his uncle killed his father; because of this, he runs away to figure out how he can prove the crime. The Perfect Storm, a work of nonfiction written by Sebastian Junger, discusses the importance of family and the feeling of isolation through telling the story of the crew of the Andrea Gail. Junger stresses this theme through the use of interviews and anecdotes to supply readers with extensive details about the lives of the crew and their experiences. Accordingly, Wroblewski uses the

Junger uses the first 50 pages of the book to teach the readers about swordfishing and how isolated they are on the water. He writes about the work days and how hard it is to be successful. Junger writes about the connection sailors must have with your crew and that there is no time for arguments. After setting sail out of Gloucester for the last time, the readers learn how important family is to the crew and how separation can make people go crazy. This also applies to their family at home. The people on land are just as alone as the crew. Family members at home go through extreme stress and suffer from severe anxiety because they don't know what is happening to the people out at sea. Junger also tells the story of the crew of the Satori, a 32 foot sailboat that got stuck in the storm. He uses interviews from the crew to tell the story and how they