Edgar Sawtelle: A Literary Analysis

In the novel, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, written by David Wroblewski, the protagonist, Edgar, is searching for the murderer of his father, Gar. He experiences some difficulty with getting justice for his father because of his lack of evidence. The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger, is about a group of men who travel the sea fishing but perish in a vicious storm called “The Perfect Storm”. Wroblewski expresses his theme of revenge and getting justice for his father, by using the literary features of foreshadowing, allusion, and point of view. Meanwhile, Junger expresses his theme of why people risk their lives everyday by using some literary features of fiction, but mainly literary features of nonfiction, including the use of interviews,
reports, and anecdotes. Revenge is an emotion that can overpower and fuel you to pursue whatever is needed to get justice for something.
In the case of Edgar Sawtelle, Edgar believes his father was murdered by his own uncle, Claude, but has trouble proving this because of lack of evidence. Throughout the novel, Edgar tried to prove his uncle guilty after first suspecting he was the murderer by following up on his uncle and trying to spark a reaction by recreating the scene. To express his theme, Wroblewski’s novel, was an allusion to the Broadway show Hamlet. Not only does he base most of his characters names off of the play, but he also has a very similar plot. Hamlet’s plot was also about a boy’s father who had died and had suspected there was foul play involved between his father and his uncle after being approached by a mysterious ghost. By making his novel an allusion to Hamlet, this further expresses his theme by giving the readers an outside source to further their understanding about the plot. Another main literary feature used in this novel to express revenge and the goal of getting justice was shown by using foreshadowing. Between the bickering and the arguing of his father Gar and Claude, and the sudden death of Gar, it wasn’t too hard to predict who had done it. The reader would likely get a sense of what was going to happen and how it
would end because of the immense amount of foreshadowing. To help the reader gain a better understanding of Edgar and his search for justice, the book is written in third person but is also narrated by different characters in each chapter including Almondine, Edgar's dog, Trudy, Edgar’s mother, and Claude. By Wroblewski doing this, he is giving the readers more opportunity to see the reactions and responses from many of the characters. It also helps prove his theme by allowing the reader to be more immersed in the action of the story by hearing the other character’s views and thoughts about the death of Gar. By Wroblewski using these three main literary themes, he was able to thoroughly express and prove his theme of revenge and getting justice for Edgar’s father. Everyday, there are men who leave their home and set out to a job to which they don’t have the certain confirmation that they will make it home that night alive.
Junger expresses his theme of this in his book, The Perfect Storm, by using different literary features to show his message. In the case of this story, sadly the crew of the Andrea Gail, a fishing boat, had all perished at sea. Since Junger wanted to write a true and factual story explaining what happened on that ship, he used interviews, reports, and anecdotes. Accordingly, he went to other people who had lived through almost the same experience of what happened on the Andrea Gail and collected intell from them. He uses an anecdote about a man who was dragged through sea while having a hook stuck in his hand. The purpose for using an anecdote like that is so it helps the reader get a better sense of the intensity out at sea. He uses another anecdote about a captain and two crew members on a yacht called the Satori. By writing about this story about this crew having to jump straight into the ocean and need to be saved by the Coast Guard rescuers in result of the weather out at sea, Junger is expanding the knowledge of the reader on conditions out at sea, helping him convey his theme. In addition to anecdotes, he also includes a variety of different reports. These included reports on maximum wind speeds and maximum wave height during the time period of the storm. By giving this type of information to the readers,
Junger is showing what they fishermen did everyday knowing that at any moment, a storm with those types of winds and waves could occur. Another way Junger shows his theme, is by the use of interview. An interview of Chris Cotter,Bobby Shatford’s girlfriend, who was also a member on the Andrea Gail, talked about how people didn’t want to tell her the details they had on the ship because she was completely out of her mind. From the use of the interviews, the reader can also get a sense of how hard it was on the people who were back home, knowing their loved one’s were going out to sea and may never returned. The periodic interviews that were inserted throughout the story give a different perspective on the danger these men were in.