Writing as Art in The Painted Bird :: Painted Bird Essays

Writing as ArtinThe Painted Bird Three Works Cited The use of contrivance has many functions. It lacks a satisfactory definition and is easier to describe it as a way something is done --the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetical objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others --rather than what it is. Jerzy Kosinskis The Painted Bird describes the disasters that befall a six-year-old son who is separated from his parents and wanders through the primitive Polish-Soviet borderlands during the war. Kosinski fails to mention the boys name and the names of the towns the boy travels over throughout the text. This enables the referee to assume that this child could have possibly been any unfortunate youngster during the war. Kosinskis writings organize the madhouse of the boys life experiences through form. The use of both organic and conventional form throughout the book draws the reader closer to the horrific encounters the young boy faced on a daily basis. Using writing as a method of art organizes the chaos of experience through form. Kosinskis novel applies organic form to portray the appalling predicaments the boy encountered during the separation from his family. The use of organic form in the formal pattern offers the reader the what-will-be-next scenario before they proceed through the pages. Kosinski gives the reader a taste of the animalistic characteristics of the towns people the boy confronts during the war. This allows the reader not to be shock when the peasants the boy faces demonstrated an extraordinary predilection for incest, sodomy, and meaningless violence. While reading The Painted Bird, the reader gains the impression that religion seemed to be a high gear priority for the village people. However, Kosinskis use of conventional form to inform his readers that church was a very important part of the culture in these villages seemed to contravene this portrayal. In the culminating incident of the book, the boy drops a missal while hes helping service Mass and is flung by the angry parishioners into a pot of spread out . Emerging from the pit he realizes that he has lost the power of speech. Church goes watched as the young boy was tossed into the manure and no one tried to avail him. A group of bullies pushes the boy, a presumed spy or Jew, below the ice of a frozen pond.