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.