Analyzing Nonfiction Prose: 'House' as Symbol.

Book-length works of nonfiction prose are seldom the object of study when college English teachers, rhetoricians, or theorists are engaged in practicing their profession. Phyllis Frus McCord (in "Reading Nonfiction in Composition Courses: From Theory to Practice" 1985) proposes that the goal should be "to break down the hard line between literature...and nonliterary texts." One way of doing this is by analyzing nonfiction prose by explicating such elements as character and image. In Tracy Kidder's book "House," the interaction between character and image moves the reader from the world of the actual to the mythic, imaginative world of archetypal symbols, the shaping principle of this literary work. The house functions as a symbol in the meaning it assumes for each individual: traditions, control, status, new beginnings, making a mark, rebellion, good-will, artistic, aesthetic, and accomplishment. The house functions as a symbol in what it means as the representation, on a more universal level, of the notion of continuity: homeownership, orientation, art, rituals, celebration and ceremony, and the spiritual flow of creativity. (Author/RS)