A Child's View

A CHILD'S VIEW

In Thomas Wolfe's The Child by Tiger (reprinted in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 9th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2006] Page 625). The story as told through the eyes of a child will show many different ways to view Dick Prosser, the main character, as a man. The child Spangler shows how the children feel about Prosser, how he resembles a cat and how he turns from a good guy to bad.

Prosser is a big man who is admired by the children. As a black man he is a servant of one of the children but is loved by all the children. He is an excellent shot and shows the children his great marksmanship with a small rifle of one of the children. The children make Prosser sound great because they build him up by how gentle he is with them. The children think of Dick as quoted in the story, " There was nothing he did not know." (Page 627) Teaching them to play football, to make a fire and even how to box makes him to them seem larger than life. It is easy to like Prosser because of the time he spends with children. Who would like him though the eyes of a child?

Several references are made by Spangler animates Prosser's cat-life features by describing his hand as a "great black paw" (Page 625). Later several references are made showing qualities of swiftness, to his red eyes when he becomes angry and even him pacing life a cat on the front porch of Pansy's house. All qualities that a cat would show Dick Prosser is showing too. Spangler says in this story "He was there upon you sometimes like a cat" (Page 627) when describing his swiftness. Throughout this story it is implied he is life a swift and large tiger. His character is surely like a cat when described as " Looking before us, sometimes, seeing nothing but the world before us, suddenly we felt a shadow at out backs and, looking up, would find that Dick was there." (Page 627) Dick's qualities are so much like a cat on the prowl sneaking up on something from out of nowhere.

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