Literary Analysis of Changes by Jim Butcher Jaiden DeMoss Alice Hoffman, the author of the novel Practical Magic, once said: “Books may well be the only true magic.” This is humorous, as the book, Changes by Jim Butcher, has a lot of magic in it. Harry Dresden is a wizard. Someone very close to him has been taken. So, simple reason says that he must get them back by all means necessary, despite several opinions from other professional wizards. The author uses irony and personality traits to convey the theme of ‘life goes on’. The usage of Irony by the author helps create the theme of ‘life goes on’. Harry Dresden, the main character of the book, thought the following while in ‘Purgatory’: “I frowned at him and looked down at myself. I …show more content…
I was dead. I was dead,” (Butcher). This quote uses irony by showing that Dresden is dead. Although he is dead, he must solve the murder of himself, which is ironic in two ways. The first is that he is dead, and he still must continue his life. The second is that being dead is supposed to be the break, a peaceful time after all the insanity of life, and yet he must return after death to do more. In conclusion, Butcher uses Irony as a major literary element to make the theme of ‘Life goes on’. Additionally, the aspect of Dresden’s personality trait of being short-sighted (action-wise, not literally) helps initiate the theme of ‘life goes on’. Harry Dresden, now a ghost after the battle to get his daughter back, thought; “At the time, one had been so focused on getting Maggie out that I'd let Molly persuade me that she deserved to be on the team. I would never have let her do that if I'd been thinking straight. one would have told her to stay at home, hold the fort, or maybe stay in the car. That was what I'd always did when one was on my way to a slugfest. Exposure to that kind of noise could quite effectively shatter her sanity, “ (Butcher). This quote shows that Harry is short-sighted (again, not literally) because he didn’t think of the outcomes afterward, he only thought about how to get Maggie back. This connects with the theme of ‘life goes on’ because even through change, life will continue to move on. Even through death, the world