The literary works Master Harold and the Boys and boy and egg illustrate clearly the device employed by their authors of showing their main characters trapped by their surroundings.

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The play "Master Harold and the Boys" is a literary work written by Athol Fugard, a famous South African playwright. It is set in South Africa during the Apartheid government, and deals with themes that portray loneliness, racial discrimination, family and internal conflicts of their main characters. The poem "Boy and Egg" is a literary work written by Naomi Shihab Nye, which deals as well with themes of character´s internal struggles and isolation. Authors of literary works often show characters trapped due to certain situations as a device to highlight the themes in their creations. In both the poem and the play, there are some characters, Hally in the case of "Master Harold and the Boys" and the boy in the case of "Boy and Egg", who appear trapped by several factors, such as the social environment that surrounds them and their emotional struggles, which in the case of Hally are triggered by his past. In both cases, the main characters attempt to resolve their confinement throughout escaping their problems instead of facing them.

In the literary work "Master Harold and The Boys", Hally feels trapped in a first instance by the social environment that surrounds him.