Literary Analysis Of James Turber's 'University Days'

Nguyễn Thị Bích Dung _ K39.701.018
James Thurber is an eminent American author and celebrated wit. His name appears to be attached with the term “humourous” because of his splendidly comic stories. It is the satire “University days” that may be considered as an embodiment for Thurber’s writing style viz. creative, compact and especially amusing style by the usage of descriptive words, sense of humor and his own anecdotes. Such is the consummate piece of work that I am deeply impressed since it evokes a comparison between the author’s university experiences and mine. In this piece of work, James Thurber is willing to make fun of himself to share his experiences that led to his unfinished degree at Ohio State University. This work uses humor in order to transfer various messages to the readers.
In the very first paragraph of “University days”, Thurber truthfully narrates his tricky situations at university in an amusing tone. It was the entirely rigid attitude of his professor in botany class which later resulted in his dropout of school. This instructor ignored the easily observable fact that Thurber had considerable difficulty in seeing as he had lost one eye in an incident since he was a child. All he did was just blame author’s incapacity of looking through a microscope at plant cells to Thurber’s indolence as well as effortlessness. Or in gymnasium class, he was not allowed to wear glasses without which he could not see anything and continually bumped into many obstacles.