The Wasp Factory (iain banks) - 2 PG critical review

The Undeserving Master

Regardless of his readiness to assume mastery over all things , man wants to be the master . Made in the image of God , as the Bible asserts , even the brave little toddler tries to disobey the commands of his or her parents . Frank Cauldhame has a dysfunctional family . But , it is not dysfunctional as dysfunctional families are commonly imagined as . It is an extremely weird family . Almost everybody in his family appears as a psychopath . It is not only Eric . While normal , healthy children may try to disobey their parents

by refusing to eat at times - Frank is responsible for killing three children when he was a child himself (Banks . In other words , Frank has been sincere in his attempt to be like God , with the power to take life at will

Frank is fixated on rituals , but even if he believes that the Wasp Factory as well as the Sacrifice Poles are meant to protect him , the reader cannot trust him at all . He is a murderer , and he has suffered pain in his life . He is full of hatred , but he justifies himself by explaining his behavior to the reader . Perhaps all readers would feel like psychologists while reading The Wasp Factory . After all , Frank is seriously ill . The reader cannot even pity him , for the simple fact that it is people like Frank that fill the world with the evils that are read about each day in newss , and watched on news channels day after day . What is even more disturbing is the fact that people like Frank try to be masters in their surroundings . The young man has expended sufficient time and energy to create his own rituals to attain mastery (Banks . The fact that he was not sent to a mental hospital with Eric shows that he was perhaps more intelligent than Eric . Frank too , has escaped a mental asylum . But it is only the reader that knows how serious Frank 's condition is . If his story had appeared in a news instead of a novel , Frank would not be allowed to feign sanity in human society

Most troubles in the world are , in fact , created by psychopaths like Frank that would like to gain mastery over all things . Osama bin Laden serves as an example . When people like Frank speak or write about themselves , there is nothing for the listener or reader to learn , for the reason that nothing makes sense in their speech or writings According to Frank : I was never registered . I have no birth certificate , no National Insurance number .I know this is a crime , and so does my father , and I think that sometimes he regrets the decision he made seventeen years ago (Banks 13-14 ' This does not make any sense . If Frank does not wish to be a criminal , and he knows that his father is wrong , would he not register himself

Organized religions refer to people like Frank and his family as devils . The Christ used...