The Wasp Factory Essay -- essays research papers

A Gothic horror story of sooner exceptional quality...macabre, bizarre and...quite impossible to put down.The above quote is the retort of the Financial Times to the best-selling novel, The Wasp Factory, and in my opinion, truer manner of speaking were never spoken. I myself had to force the book out of my hands in the early hours of the morning on several occasions. This clearly says something about the reduce power of Iain Banks debut novel. Whether you love it or loathe it, once you have read the first page you ar directly struck by its brilliance. Throughout this essay, I intend to look the mind and reputationistics of the main character, Frank Cauldhame.Throughout the story, Franks character is brought out through his experiences, of which the most measurable are possibly the common chord murders he commits. I am not going to explore how he commits these terrible crimes, but rather why.Franks first victim is his cousin Blyth. He kills Blyth for a relatively simple r eason, revenge. Blyth killed Frank and his crony Erics rabbits using a makeshift flame-thrower, which Eric had built himself. Eric is completely undo by this. So, a year later, Frank decides to settle the score with his cousin. Blyth had an coloured leg, and this was what gave Frank the chance to get even. One day, Frank and Eric, their jr. comrade Paul ( who is later killed ) and Blyth are lying in the sand. Frank goes for a walk to the Bunker and inside the dark, c older concrete pillbox , he maintains an adder. He decides what he is going to do almost instantly. He catches the snake and bundles it into an old tin can. He then returns to the place where he odd his cousin and brothers, and puts the snake into the artificial leg. Blyths death is slow and painful, and to Frank, this seems real appropriate. The way he sees it, Blyth deserves to die notioning similar agony to that which his rabbits necessary have felt, and Frank feels no remorse. He tells Eric that he though t it was a judgement from God that Blyth had first lost his leg and then had the reliever become the instrument of his downf each(prenominal). Frank then proceeds to name the playing area where Blyth was killed as The Snake Park This statement is an early indicator of an essential feature of Franks character, and that is his belief in symbolism and destiny. We find another example of this when we analyse the death of Franks younger brother,... ...ncredible atmosphere around you as a reader. You feel as if you are right beside Frank throughout his implausible adventures, and this is a very important offend of a story about a young mans spiritedness and experiences. It is not enough to simply read The Wasp Factory, you have to feel it and be a part of it. It is more than just a novel, it is a journey through the mind of an obsessive sixteen year old boy, where you learn to look at the world in a varied light. This experience is especially profound for a Scottish reader because of the incredible perceptive use of dialect and setting.I will conclude with a powerful quote from the novelAll our lives are symbols. Everything we do is part of a cast we have at least some say in. The strong make their own patterns and influence other peoples, the creaky have their courses mapped out for them. The weak and the unlucky, and the stupid. The Wasp Factory is part of the pattern because it is part of life and-even more so-part of death. Like life it is complicated, so all the components are thereI hope that this has provided you with a final brainwave into the twistedly genius mind that belongs to Frank Cauldhame, and also, Iain Banks.