Analysis of Bone: Out from Bonneville Play by Smith Jeff - Essay Example

The play Bone In telling the story of three cousins who get lost in a desert after their forceful eviction from a city, the author of the play Bone: Out from Bonneville, which is a fictional adventure comical book that runs on a simplistic plot, employs various rhetorical features in order to earn relevance to the story. After pulling a robbery prank on the people of the town, the people of the town send away the three friends: Fone Bone, Phoney Bone and Smiley Bone. After a locust attack in the desert, the three cousins become separated from each other and must therefore find each other before they continue with their journey in search of a respective city where they purpose to begin their lives afresh. The plot centers on their experience and adventure in the desert and the attempts of Fone Bone and Phone Bone who meet each other and therefore try to find their other cousin Smiley. The author uses symbolism progressively throughout the story. Symbolism refers to the strategic portrayal of devices in a story in order to infer various meanings. Motif in literature refers to a symbol the author employs throughout the plot of the story. The symbol embodies a particular feature of both the plot and the characters in the story throughout the plot. Among the most evident motifs in the story alongside is the desert. The story begins in a city but quickly moves into the desert where the rest of the actions occur. The desert therefore portrays various elements of the story depending on its depiction at various stages of the story. In page three soon after their exit from the city, the author portrays the three cousin in the desert discussing their next step. In this page, the author portrays the abrupt eviction of the three from the city. Apparently, the three had not considered the ramifications of their actions. Their eviction from the city thus places them in a precarious situation and therefore sits in the desert to determine their next step of action. Through symbolism, the author uses the desert again to portray nature and the forces it presents to make the life of the three cousins difficult. Soon after their arrival in the desert, the three begin facing intense forces of nature including the cold windy nights. The author justifies such only by constantly showing the desert. Locusts may fly over cities but the setting of a city makes it difficult for such pests to survive. The author thus sets the story in a desert and strategically uses the desert to justify the locusts’ attack. After their separation, two of the cousins: Fone and Phoney meet and must therefore locate their third cousin (Jeff 71). Their attempt to find Smiley proves difficult as they encounter various forces that make their attempt difficult. They later discover that surviving on their own is impossible. They must therefore find new friends with a vast knowledge of the desert to guide them through the various forces on nature in order to locate their long lost cousin. The portrayal of the desert throughout the plot helps the author validate his claims and the traits of the successive characters the author introduces. The author further uses the desert to symbolize the vast experience of the characters. Among the new characters are a tiny bug known as Ted, a beautiful girl christened Thorn and her grandmother Ben. The characters have lived in the desert all their lives; they therefore have the vast experience and knowledge of the desert as they guide their visitors throughout the vast dry land in search of their cousin. Even with the natives, the visitors still encounter challenges resulting arising from the desert. Throughout the plot, the author presents the desert often portraying its features that present the various challenges to both the hosts and the natives in their attempt to find Smiley. Besides the extensive use of visual aid and the pictorial portrayal of the desert among other features of the story including the characters, the author further uses various literary devices to help facilitate his communication. Coupled with the pictures, the word in the story communicates more effectively often presenting the audience with the opportunity to analyze the various features of both the setting and the plot throughout the story. Symbolism provides the authors with an opportunity to guise the meaning of their messages in specific features they use in order to enhance communication. The desert is the setting of the plot. Through the desert, the author communicates various social features. Just as with any other literature, the author of the story employs several literary features in developing the story in order to communicate effectively with his target audience. Among the various literary features the author employs is symbolism. The author portrays various features of the story including the setting through the portrayal of the desert and the plot as he introduces the invasion to symbolize various aspects of the society. The desert in the story symbolizes various features, besides the picturesque scene the desert creates; the author’s consistent portrayal of the desert throughout the story complements his communication. The desert is vast and has minimal resources. The lack of water and the cold windy nights threaten the survival of the cousins in the desert. The desert therefore remains a constant reminder of their eviction from the city and therefore a destitute state. The desert in nearly all the pages of the book therefore helps create the setting for the action. The author is strategic and develops the actions in the desert. He therefore portrays the desert in all the pages of the book to act as a constant reminder to the audience of the setting I which the action takes place. The vast breadth of the desert and the lack of fundamental life sustaining resources present the cousins with serious challenges with they must overcome in order to survive. Among the most vital survival tactic the three rely on is their ability to stay together. The vastness of the desert threatens this after a locust inversion that disperses the three in different directions (Jeff 31). The author uses the desert to symbolize the intensity of the confusion that engulfs the three after the inversion. As explained earlier, the desert is vast and the three only have themselves to rely on to survive. When they therefore separate during the locust inversion, fate minimizes their survival chances. The vastness of the desert sustains the confusion that engulfs the three as they try to find each other after the inversion. The author of the story employs the desert strategically to facilitate the confusion thus losing the three further. In some cases, the author shows a mountain in the desert. This heightens the suspense in the story since the cousins are separated and must therefore overcome every obstacle in order to find each other and the mountain could possibly be one of the obstacles. The placement of the mountain the plot therefore sustains the confusion the author seeks to create in his target audience. In retrospect, the author employs various literary features that facilitate the communication process. Through the strategic employment of the features, the author earns authenticity to his claims. The use of visual aid in the book eliminates various sentences the author could have used to describe the setting among other intricate features of the action in the plot. The visual portrayals require effective portrayal that compels the author to give as much details as possible. The depiction of the desert is strategic and exemplifies the extent of details in the setting. The author depicts the desert in various ways with the author ensuring that he provides as much details as possible in order to facilitate the author’s communication. Word count 1303 Work cited Jeff, Smith in Bone: Out from Boneville. New York: Graphix, 1995. Print. Read More