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Essay On Billy The Kid

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Billy vs. Jane The Collective Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje and Jane (a murder) by Maggie Nelson, are two works of literature with a unique story line. Although the books are very different, after comparing and contrasting the two, one is able to find similarities between the two books. The Collective Works of Billy the Kid depicts the last year of the famous outlaw’s life. Michal Ondaatje tells the story using a series of pictures that move the reader to the final confrontation of Billy’s life. Jane (a murder) tells the story of the life and death of Maggie Nelson’s aunt Jane. Jane was murdered in 1969 while attending University of Michigan; her murder was unsolved. Jane takes the reader through the emotional journey of the unsolved …show more content…

In the Collective Works of Billy the Kid Ondaatje uses pictures and historical facts which he then combines with his own thoughts and puts into prose to tell of Billy the Kid. For example, "From the head there'd be a trail of vertebrae like a row of pearl buttons off a rich coat down to the pelvis….And a pair of handcuffs holding ridiculously the fine ankle bones”. Describing what it would have been like to be at Billy’s funeral, Ondaatje takes historic accounts of his death and puts it into prose form to describe the scene. In Jane (a murder) Maggie Nelson uses passages from her aunt’s diary in order to further explain what here aunt was like while she was still alive. To further tell the story of her aunt she combines the journal entries with her own thoughts written in prose, to tell the complete story. “I can become a very tragic figure in my own mind if I don’t make an effort to be gay. Treating things lightly is indeed the answer to so much” wrote Jane (107). The following passage after this journal entry is the talk of her funeral and how it was an open

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