"The Boat" and "Cages"

Paper Summary:

This paper describes the father-son relationships depicted in Alistair McLeod's work, "The Boat" and in Guy Vanderhaeghe's work "Cages". The paper first looks at Alistair McLeod's story "The Boat" and his portrayal of a Puritan family and the father's role in the protagonist's life. The paper then looks at Guy Vanderhaeghe's work "Cages" that describes a father who will do anything for his sons to have a better life than himself. The paper points out that in both stories, we are shown a father's relationship with his son(s) and how it shapes an identity.

From the Paper:

"Shakespeare actually considered himself a poet, not a writer. Many successful screenwriters acknowledge that their works do not reflect reality, only that they use poetic devices to create something that resembles it (Trottier 7). Likewise, those who write fiction - whether they admit it or not - have a great deal in common with poets, who are said to "paint pictures with words" (source of quote unknown). The blank page is the canvas, and the palette consists of colours we have conveniently labelled as "symbol," "image," "narrative," "contrast," "metaphor," "reversal," and more (Harmon, 262, 441, 507). These literary "colors" - devices - are used in establishing characters' identities, and the identity of their relationships to each other."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Man Descending". 2006. (1 Feb 2007): Wikipedia. 14 March 2007.
• Holman, William Harmon and C. Hugh. A Handbook to Literature. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 1996.
• MacLeod, Alistair. "The Boat." Island: The Completed Stories. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. 1-25.
• Riegel, Christian. "Elegy and Mourning in Alistair Macleod's "The Boat"." Studies In Short Fiction.Summer 1998 (1998).
• Vanderhaeghe, Guy. "Cages." Man Descending. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1982.

More papers on "The Boat" and "Cages":

• Analytical Essay # 134994 : "A Response to "The Boat"
• Comparison Essay # 46459 : "Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" and Sophocles' "Oedipus Tyrannus"
• Book Review # 121936 : "The Sovereignty and Goodness of God"

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