The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

One of the themes of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is the use of different forms of language to communicate. Edgar is born mute, so he can only communicate with his parents and the dogs around him...

While it is rather difficult to find parallels between The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and Hamlet in each chapter as the narrative is only loosely based upon Shakespeare's famous play, there are...

There are many symbols in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Perhaps the most obvious one is Edgar's inability to speak. While he cannot verbally communicate, he is still able to successfully communicate...

The prologue to David Wrolewski’s novel The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is filled with a sense of foreboding. An unnamed man walks into an alley, gazes around, and knocks on a door. An elderly...

At the end of the novel, Essay is the one who makes the decision. She has to choose between the village and Forte. She ends up choosing to lead the dogs to Forte and then into the forest. So...

The "sustained literary allusion to another work of literature" is no doubt, the idea that this novel seems to parallel the story of "Hamlet." Consider the similarities: Edgar's mother, Trudy is...

Two themes in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski are human-animal relationships and animal companionship. In the beginning of the book, the author writes about John’s Sawtelle’s...

There are several quotes that would help you pinpoint the conflict between these three characters, and rather than providing a list, it would be probably be more beneficial for you to look again at...

One theme that cannot be ignored in this lengthy novel is the idea of isolation, shown most prominently in the character of the protagonist, Edgar. First, he is mute, but not Deaf. His isolation...

Irony is a literary device in which the opposite of what is expected occurs. A character may possess an unexpected attribute or behave in a way that is unexpected. Dramatic irony occurs when the...

The main character in the story is Edgar. Edgar is unique because he is mute. When the story begins he is fourteen years old. Edgar is a young boy who, like Hamlet, knows that his father was...

Similes are comparisons between two objects using the words "like" or "as" and are generally pretty easy to identify because of the presence of these words. In describing part of a field,...

Edgar's grandfather, John Sawtelle, took great pains and care over a considerable length of time to develop a distinctly unique new breed of dog. He performed this breeding process at the Sawtelle...

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, first published in 2008, would be considered a piece of contemporary literature. As the literary era in which we currently live, it is difficult to fully define the...

The novel The Story of Edgar Sawtelle tells the tragic tale of a boy named Edgar who cannot speak. Edgar’s life descends quickly into chaos when his father is mysteriously murdered. Soon, Edgar is...

A "coming of age" story is one in which the main character (or, sometimes, characters) make the transition from childhood into adulthood, usually through some sort of tragedy, or unpleasant...

One way you could answer your question is to think about the ways in which Edgar’s character already has much in common with customary representations of females. You might discuss how Edgar’s...

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is often described as a retelling or reimagining of Hamlet, and the plot closely follows that of Shakespeare's play. In Hamlet, the two female characters are both...

There is some condition of vagueness in the "beginning" and "middle" conditions of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. This does not preclude the fact that the consideration of gender is vitally...

The idea of memory in the story is directly related to the themes of isolation and destruction. As a result of the third-person and mostly omniscient point-of-view, the reader is invited into the...

In examining gender criticism, the reader looks at the way that gender affects a work and whether gender stereotypes have been upheld and, therefore, supported or whether they have been broken down...