Marcelo Pleitez ENGL 101 Fall 2015 The Child by Tiger/Tyger Tyger Thomas Wolfe short story "The Child By Tiger" uses William Blake's poem "The Tiger" toward the end in order to create a parallel between the subject of Blake's poem, and the main character of Wolfe's short story, an African-American named Dick Prosser. Through this comparison, the reader is able to deduce that Wolfe believes Dick's personality in the beginning of the story and actions towards the collide, and represent two sides of the same creation, representing the lamb and the tiger. He believes that Dick represented the innocent lamb in the beginning, yet later represents the terrifying apex predator Tiger of darkened heart in Blake's poem. Wolfe uses this comparison to raise the question, "Who or what created this man, and how can the creator have created both the lamb and the tiger?" Wolfe's story is based on the speaker's recollection of events that unfolded during his childhood 25 years prior to the narration. The speaker and two childhood friends, Randy Shepperton and Nebraska Crane, admire an African American army veteran named Dick Prosser. Dick is a servant of Randy Shepperton's family. The young boys all admire him and his seemingly boundless array of abilities and pros. The speaker tells readers, "There was nothing that he did not know. We were all so proud of him." (726). The speaker further highlights Prosser's prowess as a servant and as a seemingly complete and perfect person by stating that even Randy's father, Mr. Shepperton, "himself declared that Dick was the best man he'd ever had, the smartest darky that he'd ever known." (726). The young boys admire him for his physical prowess, and how well he plays various sports. But the boys also admire and respect his humility and willingness to teach them all he knows. Yet despite Dick's athleticism and intelligence (as per Mr. Shepperton) Dick speaks in a manner similar to an uneducated person, or similar to a Marcelo Pleitez ENGL 101 Fall 2015 simpleton. However, Dick's simple speech and diction are contradicted by the spiritual messages he often conveys to the children: "oh, young white fokes, Ise tellin' you […] you gotta love each othah like a brothah." (726). Dick shows more of this spirituality and faith as we learn he is a devout Christian. Dick Prosser dresses formally Sunday morning and takes the Sheppertons to church and waits for them outside of the church doors and listens to the morning service from the doors (since he was not allowed on account of his being Non-White). Prosser sings the following songs: "Who Follows in His Train?", "Alexander's Glory Song" and "Rock of Ages" and "Onward, Christian Soldiers!". All of which allude to war and being a soldier, and fighting battles in the name of Christ. That Dick Prosser sings to this selection of songs specifically reveals something from his past and more about himself as a person, but also creates a foreshadowing. Readers deduce that Dick is a religious man. This is further confirmed when it is revealed that the only scripture he has is an old copy of a Bible in his room. Much of Prosser's early descriptions show evidence that Prosser is represented by the lamb in William Blake's poem. Yet further into the story, shortly before Christmas time, the Shepperton's other servant, Pansy Harris, leaves the family. The boys discover that Prosser purchased a gun for himself. Prosser's gun seems insignificant at first, but later follows the principle of Chekov's Gun: the idea that when a gun appears in a story, it will eventually be fired. Prosser uses the gun to murder Pansy's husband, for reasons not explicitly stated, other than the police stating "It was a crazy nigger with 'another nigger's woman'" (735). Following the murder of Mr. Harris, Prosser goes on a massacre killing a myriad of police officers, and shoots up the parts of the town he passes through. By this point in the story the Dick Prosser the children worshiped has disappeared, and the clinical and ruthless apex predator that is Dick Prosser, his soldier instincts emerge and take over completely. He goes on a murder spree, this shows the representation of Dick as the tiger as Marcelo Pleitez ENGL 101 Fall 2015 well. It is only moments before his inevitable death that the Christian Prosser returns, he lays down and prepares for death humbly by the river. The river itself represents clarity and virtue, he waits by the river as a proverbial cleansing of his sins before his death. The speaker and the readers puzzle over why Dick patiently awaited his death without resistance. This relates to the urgent question raised toward the end of the poem "Who created both the tiger and the lamb?" and Prosser prepared himself to discover the long awaited answer to this question. The poem Wolfe recites in the last two pages of his short story is a poem called "Tyger Tyger", by William Blake. This poem by title alone relates to Wolfe's short story. Wolfe himself cites the poem in honor of Dick Prosser. The poem's subjects are a tiger and lamb. In this poem the speaker asks just where in the heavens and galaxies could a beast have been created and whom by? Was the creator proud of this fearsome Tiger it created? The speaker also raises the question, what fire was this tiger forged in, and how could its creator continue knowing what devastation and horror the tiger could wreck whenever it felt? Wolfe uses Blake's poem in order to create a parallel between Prosser and the Tiger, thus asking the questions above questions about Dick Prosser, not an actual Tiger. However, the tiger seems to only represent Prosser when he is heartlessly murdering many of the citizens in the town. Dick Prosser is the subject of Wolfe's short story "Child By Tiger". Wolfe also uses Dick Prosser as the proverbial Lamb and Tiger in William Blake's poem "Tyger Tyger" which Wolfe uses following Prosser's death. Wolfe's use of the poem serves as both an obituary and parallel to the drastically different sides of Prosser's persona, as shown in the events that unfolded during the speaker's childhood. Wolfe further uses the poem to theorize that perhaps, Prosser peacefully awaited his death by the river in the hopes that he may find the answer to the question posed in Marcelo Pleitez ENGL 101 Fall 2015 Blake's poem, "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" This question is not only meant as a theory as to why Prosser peacefully awaited the relief of death, but this question is also meant for us the readers, and the speaker, for none of us shall ever quite understand why he awaited death, nor will we know if he who made the Lamb also made the Child by Tiger.
