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The Child By Tiger Analysis

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The short story, “The Child by Tiger”, written by Thomas Wolfe, is about a young boy named Shepperton, who is surrounded by a corrupted society where black people are segregated from white people. One of the major themes in this story is the theme of human nature. There are many examples of this mentioned in the story including what jobs black people can have, how the Southern society treats black people, and how black criminals are dealt with in the town. All these examples affect the plot in various ways that keep the story progressing. During the time of the setting of this story, black people weren’t allowed many jobs, if any at all. For example, only three jobs were really introduced in the story to readers; a cook, Pansy Harris’s job; …show more content…

The way the towns people hunted Dick after he fled resembled a predator hunting its prey. Likewise, when Dick was caught and slaughtered, the hunting party took Dick’s mangled body back into town and hung it in the window of a store for everyone to see. This act resembled that of a hunter, showing off his trophy he had slain for ego. A nigger hunter, Ben Pounders, said, “I was the first one to git in a shot…That big hole above the eye…that’s mine.” (pg. 741). The way the mob had gloated over how they shot Dick only furthered how much people related the black man to that of a wild animal. This scene affected young Spangler by forcing him to sense multiple different feelings that took control of him all at once and caused him to question his own human nature. Spangler knew this obscene situation that had occurred was wrong on both sides of the conflict. Readers could tell that in the end, Spangler believed the townspeople to be just as evil as Dick Prosser; however, unlike Dick, the town had hope and therefore a chance to cleanse themselves from their evil. Despite the previous arguments about human nature in “The Child by Tiger”, There are several other contradictions that would debate the theme. Still, there is no denying the fact that “The Child by Tiger” was written in part to express the evils of segregation that went on during the time the story was

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