Independent Study

Unit:Compare and

Contrast Essay

By: Andrea Bennici

The TygerBy: William Blake

William Blake

• Writer of the poem: The Tyger

• 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

• an English painter, poet and printmaker

• Born in London to James and Catherine Blake

• He had visions of God and angels since the age of 4

PoemTyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art. Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp? When the stars threw down their spears, And watered heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Summary The poem opens with the speaker asking the tiger who was

able to create it.

Each stanza refers back to this line of questioning: Who created it? How were they able to continue the job after it’s heart began to beat? Could it be the same Creator of the lamb?

The speaker compares the creator’s ability to create life, to a blacksmith’s ability to create objects.

His line of questioning seems innocent, but his how's become whys.

The start of the poem and the ending begin with the same verse.

Analysis

The beginning of the poem is what makes the largest of impacts. It sets up the rest of the poem. We must understand that William

Blake is not only talking about the tiger. As the poem reaches an end the tiger becomes a symbol. That a creator has the ability to

create things of beauty and of destruction. Blake questions all this through his poem: What kind of creator would create such a thing?

What does that tell us about our world?

By putting the lamb within his poem, Blake reminds the audience that the tiger and the lamb are created by the same God, and yet

they are so different. In addition, it invites a contrast between experience and innocence.

As one may notice, all the questions in the poem are left unanswered. This leaves the audience in a questioning mentality themselves. It arises all sorts of questions on the unanswerable

things that we must always acknowledge. Evil, life, death, tigers.

Essay Blueprint

Life of Pi and The Tyger

Introduction

Lead: If one were to concentrate on two completely opposite things like heaven or hell, there will always be a trace of similarity, sometimes bigger then expected.

Literature: Within the novel Life of Pi, and within the poem The Tyger, readers will effortlessly find a tremendous amount of similarities. However to pinpoint their differences is slightly a harder task.

Subtopics: Through God and through pain, the poem and novel go hand in hand, and yet both influential characters are perceived differently.

Thesis: Martel’s Life of Pi and Blake’s The Tyger two literary pieces that contain similar elements. However, aside all its similarities, Richard Parker and poem’s tiger stand to be opposites.

Connection to God

Topic Sentence: Both pieces of literature are influenced through the power of a greater

being.

Point: Pi contains a deep and powerful understanding about God, leading him to be faithful throughout even the hardest of struggles.

Proof: “I was giving up. I would have given up – if a voice hadn’t made itself heard in my heart . . . Yes so long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen.” (Y.Martel, 186)

Explain: After the shipwreck, many would have given up and let go, however Pi’s faith lead him to be strong due to his deep belief in the Lord.

Point: The poem The Tyger consists of multiple questions based upon the subject of creation, all directed to the Creator himself.

Proof: “What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?” (Blake, The Tyger)

Explain: Both beginning and ending of this poem commence with these two lines, the word “immortal” proves the poem to be relating to that of a greater being, while the words “dare frame” emphasize the subject of creation.

God

The Tiger

Topic Sentence: Both literary pieces are heavily influenced by the presence of a tiger. However, both tigers are portrayed through

a different set of eyes.

The Tiger

Point: Within the Life of Pi, Pi has always been drawn to Richard Parker and is able to face him when his life is in danger.

Proof: “Richard Parker has stayed with me. I've never forgotten him. Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness of the human heart. (Y.Martel,14)

Explain: This quotation proves that Pi, aside all he has been through, still considers Richard Parker to be a dear member of his life – even though he is a tiger.

Point: Unlike the novel, the poem pursues tigers as a dark, evil creations produced by a greater being.

Proof: “what dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp? (Blake, The Tyger)

Explain: Within the poem, the speaker is constantly questioning a god as to how and as to why he could create such a horror. Proving the poem to perceive the tiger itself as evil.

Suffering

Topic Sentence: Both novel and poem contain indication of evildoing and suffering.

Suffering

Point: The protagonist within the novel Life of Pi is obligated to survive on a lifeboat in the middle of the pacific ocean for over two-hundred days with a tiger.

Proof: "And what of my extended family – birds, beasts, and reptiles? They too have drowned. Every single thing I value in life has been destroyed. And I am allowed no explanation? I am to suffer hell without any account from heaven? In that case, what is the purpose of reason, Richard Parker?" (Y.Martel, 98)

Explain: This quotation, spoken by Pi, to the tiger, proves the degree of Pi’s suffering, and the extent of his grievance.

Point: The Tyger, aside its small size, contains multiple traces of suffering, pain, and fault through the simplicity of its words.

Proof: “What the hand dare sieze the fire?... What the anvil? what dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp?... Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?...” (Blake, The Tyger)

Explain: The speaker of the poem is questioning the Creator as to how he was able to create something so evil, so dreadful. This is proven through the use of words such as fearful, dread, or fire.

Conclusion

Restate: In conclusion, Yann Martel’s novel and William Blakes’s poem contain such similar elements of pain and suffering that one may think they wrote it together. However, that thought is broken when the realization sets in on how different the tigers truly are.

Conclude: Ironically, every religion contains similarities, a greater being, and/or rituals. Every person has been through pain and happiness, but no matter the struggles people go through, no one comes out being the same as someone else.

General: The world has seen it all, it has seen hardships and struggles, wars and peace, death and birth, and each time and every time again, they will all be comparable and they will be completely different.

Works Cited

"William Blake." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 18 July 2014.