Perspectives

Literary perspective

The short story “The Knife Thrower” by Steven Millhauser has several elements of modernist literature. One of them is the subjective and unreliable narrator. The audience in the story is easily manipulated, and their perception of reality is distorted. Sometimes it seems like they intentionally want to mislead the listener, or themselves, but the truth can still be read between the lines. 

The theme of the story, which has to do with the darker aspects of human personality, such as the desire for violence, is another modernist element. The story focuses both on the desire to commit violence, through Hensch, as well as on the desire to witness violence, through the audience. The heavy use of symbols is another modernist element. The props used by the knife thrower, such as the butterfly, the red apple, and the clothes, are all symbols through which he manipulates the...