Hangman reflection

Life in some perspectives has both controllable factors and uncontrollable factors. The controllable factors are how you live your life and how you view the world, while the uncontrollable factors are your chemical and biological makeup. This means that somethings in life can be changed and somethings can't and yet the many times people get judged on uncontrollable factors, which has a direct impact on the formation of a person’s identity. Society unfairly judges an individual by appearance and  other uncontrollable factors, and once a person learns to ignore these judgements and develop their own character is when one 'comes of age'.  This message of coming of age is effectively portrayed in the short story Hangman, by David Mitchell, through the use of literary techniques such as hyperbole, personification, and similes.

Throughout this short story the author uses hyperbole to illustrate how people often magnify their problems to be much greater than they actually are. For example, when Jason was discussing his stammer in school he proclaimed, “You can’t stammer in a classroom, either. My students’d crucify me” (Mitchell 35). This exemplifies that Jason is really scared to stammer in class for he is afraid of the judgement that will result from him speaking his mind, and although his stammer is uncontrollable he will still get the reprimanded for his stammer.  He uses the word ‘crucify’ as an over exaggeration of this judgement.  This exemplifies that if one magnifies their problems to make it a much bigger deal, it indicates that they are not ready to 'come of age' because it’s a childish phase to make small problems a big deal. This proves that in order to 'come of age' one has to ignore the haters and let them be their motivators, which will allow a person to develop into their true character.

The major conflict in the story is how the main character, Jason, must deal with the repercussions of his stammer, which he refers to as his 'Hangman'.  The author uses personification to illustrate the conflict. For example, when Jason is telling the readers about the stages of his stammer, he says, “February’s Hangman’s favorite month. Come summer he gets dozy and hibernates through to autumn” (Mitchell 29). This proves that Jason is treating this stammer of his as a living creature. By using words like hibernates and ‘he’ is giving a life to an inanimate object. Also this proves that he does not accept his stammer as a part of him, but instead sees it as an annoyance that he has to deal with it everyday. When one learns to accept these uncontrollable factors in their genetic makeup, that is when they will 'come of age'.

The message of 'coming of age' that they author is portraying in this piece is also depicted through his use of similes. For example, in the beginning of the novel Jason feels that “Most people think stammering and stuttering are the same but they’re as different as diarrhea and constipation.” (Mitchell 25). This shows how Jason compares the problem of his stammer to diarrhea, which is used to show how disgusted he is with his problem. Also, this shows how these two uncontrollable conditions are alike because they are both viewed as disgusting and hated in Jason’s mind.