Researched Literary Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Researched Literary Analysis - Essay Example The traditional prim pram conventions like pristine landscapes, innocent boys, loving parents, perfect mentors, and the security provided by an impeccable moral order had degenerated to the plight of some cheap and outdated joke. In contrast, the Bank’s narrative is set in a comparatively macabre ambience where the teenagers play with guns and marijuana, little girls are exposed to sexual abuse and pornography, death and violence always lurk in the background and everything ultimately seems to come down to sex and money. ‘Rule of the Bone’ appears to be a bloody spoof on the traditional notion of American Dream where the world order is defined by a burgeoning middle class whose popular idea of success hovers around cars, dish washers and the Sunday mass. Chappie, the protagonist in ‘Rule of the Bone’, if one could call him a protagonist in the true sense of the word fits nowhere in this cozy world order. Infact the only way he manages to infiltrate this sophisticated world is by breaking into a rich family’s summer house, along with his friend Russ. However, the accompanying filth and grime that seems to be his fate soon come to settle around him even in such polished quarters. Banks nowhere in his novel makes a conscious or deliberate attempt to make his characters likeable or tries to coax out the unguarded sympathy of his readers for his characters (Kakutani 2). The escapades of a teenager, who has problems with drugs, who puts in with violent bikers who love to b ludgeon homosexuals, who breaks trigger happy during fits of rage and frustration will certainly not make a good bed time story. Yet, the irony is that Banks never intends his book to be just another bed time story. On the contrary, ‘Rule of the Bone’ is a work of art that jolts the consciousness of its readers out of their cherished notions of what is acceptable