Beauty is an enthralling trait, so enthralling that it may incite a desire to possess in the hearts it captures.
But beauty, in illuminating irony of its wiles, is not to be obtained. In the piece of literature, “The Iguana” , written by Isak Dinesen, is entailed a story concerning a personal, thoughtful, and epiphanic experience of the narrator in regards to beauty. The author develops the theme of revelation via the use of the literary device of characterization.The author first exhibits the theme of revelation in concurrence with the literary device of characterization when the narrator shoots and kills an iguana. “Once I shot an Iguana.
I thought that I should be able to make some pretty things from his skin.” That experience indicates her initially thoughtless and apathetic attitude concerning the life of the iguana. Shortly after, in the midst of the languishing of the lizard, she notices that beauty, as though tethered to the vitality of the creature, wanes to naught with the passing breath of the iguana. The narrator says “It was the live impetuous blood pulsating within the animal, which had radiated out all that glow and splendour.” In juxtaposition to her prior thoughtless and hasty behavior, she demonstrates a shrewd judgment concerning the beauty of the iguana, which is a notable pivot in her character. Near the end of the story, she makes a statement that is very telling of the change in her attitude toward beauty. She says “.
..one should take measures to find out whether things will be keeping their value when dead. To the settlers of East Africa I give the advice: ‘For the sake of your own eyes and heart, shoot not the Iguana.’ ” This develops the theme of revelation via evincing her shift in mentality concerning the treatment of beauty with characterization. She thinks that beauty should not be handled cruelly as an object of rapacity.
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The narrator now understands that beauty is a valuable trait beyond avaricious possession.The author also exhibits the theme of revelation with the literary device of figurative language. She describes the shimmering elegance of the iguana with figurative language. “They shine like a heap of precious stones or like a pane cut out of an old church window. When, as you approach, they swish away, there is a flash of azure, green and purple over the stones, the colour seems to be standing behind them in the air, like a comet’s luminous tail.
” She acknowledges the grace and luster of the iguana with colorful comparisons to sparkling stone or church window, saying also that it has a likeness to comet’s shining and exuberant tail. This is her initial impression of the iguana. She then shoots the iguana with the intention of flaying and fashioning things from its skin. She remarks on its appearance after being shot, saying “…and by the time that I touched him he was grey and dull like a lump of concrete.” She notices that the iguana, in a state bereft of life, has taken on an appearance in blatant contrast to its preceding form.
A third instance of the theme of revelation operating in conjunction with figurative language is when the narrator encounters a young African girl and is enraptured by the charming amalgam of colors on her bracelet. She hastily has Farah purchase the bracelet from the girl for her, and once donning it, notices an immediate and grievous transformation. “No sooner had it come upon my own arm than it gave up the ghost.
It was nothing now, a small, cheap, purchased article of finery.” The bracelet had been in such incongruence with her “pale hand” that its beauty was diminished nigh-instantaneously, and she takes heed of this. It became nothing short of the corpse of the iguana. These three instances develop the theme of revelation through displaying the shift in her understanding of beauty and its connection with life with figurative language. She also understands that beauty is not an obtainable item, and it is given animation by that which it is connected to.
Beauty is a valuable trait that inflames passion in the hearts of its viewers, so much so that a desire to grasp it is invoked. However, beauty is an attribute not to be treated as an object of pursuit, lest it be lost as swiftly as it is gained.
