literary analysis #1: ham on rye by charles bukowski

#1 - #2) Ham on Rye is a coming-of-age novel in its most raw form. Before you think about any other popular coming-of-age novel with the word “rye” in its title, this book isn’t about a teenage kid smoking cigarettes and calling everybody phony. The novel starts with the protagonist, Henry Chinaski, as he describes his first memories, and tells alarming stories of his adolescence in LA during the Great Depression. It follows him as he describes his middle school experiences, stained with blood and alcohol. He experiences pain and alienation from a wildly severe case of acne, having to visit treatment centers frequently. Because of this, he is often compared to Frankenstein’s Monster.  After teenage years full of turning points such as Henry standing up to his father during a beating, and discovering the dangerous  muse of alcohol. The story ends with an cynical but enlightened Henry Chinaski as he begins to write more and go to school less.

#3) Charles Bukowski's style and tone is very flat and direct. He describes things in depth, but doesn't use flowery words or descriptions. The subject matter and the way he depicts it is very brutal, simple, and gruesome at times

"Then my father began beating my mother. She screamed and he kept beating her. I climbed out a winter and tried to get in the front door. It was locked. I stood in the backyard and listed to the screaming and the beating" 

pg. 53, First Ecco edition (2002)

"Igor passed the bottle. Good stuff, it really burned the membranes of the throat. Igor drove his car like a tank, right through stop signals. People blew their horns and slammed on their brakes as he waved a fake black pistol at them."

pg. 239

"Sitting there drinking, I considered suicide, but felt a strange fondness for my body, my life. Scarred as they were, they were mind. I would look into the dresser mirror and grin..."

pg. 274

#4)

• "She kept coming, a steamship of a woman." metaphor, pg. 64
• "He was like a mongrel dog, starved and kicked." simile, pg. 94
• "Something happened. The bath towels knew it, the shower curtain knew it, the mirror knew it, the bathtub and toilet knew it." personification, pg. 121
• "I watched people from afar, it was like a stage play. Only they were on the stage and I was an audience of one." analogy, pg. 122
• "About 38 but with pure white hair pulled tightly into a bun behind her neck. Her nose was sharp and she had deep green eyes behind rimless glasses. I felt that she knew everything." imagery, pg. 151
• "I was like some jungle animal drawn to the light and looking in" simile, pg. 193
• Henry writes and describes in-depth stories about airplanes and pilots, as a way for both him and the reader to escape from the depressing and vile things happening in his life. pg. 146-148.