The poem “Woodchucks” by Maxine Kumin is about the dehumanization of a man to the point where he is completely opposite from the person he used to be. He is desensitized to the point where he can justify to himself a mass extermination. It shows the effect hatred and evil can have on a human’s soul and how that can change their behavior. The poem begins with the man having a prejudice against one population, the woodchucks, which finally evolves into a personal vendetta towards them. The author, Maxine Kumin, mainly uses dramatic irony and symbolism to show how the growth of evil inside of a person until all that is human is carved away. A few other literary devices are also used in her poem. These devices include characterization, alliteration, and metaphors.
Kumin uses dramatic irony constantly throughout her poem. You can see dramatic irony in what the speaker knows as well as what Kumin, the author, wanted the poem to portray. Symbolism is also quite abundant throughout the poem; the woodchucks and the farmer are used to represent more than what they just appear to characterize. The poem is not just about a farmer that enjoys killing small animals; there is more that is hidden in the writing.
Throughout the whole poem, as you look from stanza to stanza, the speaker’s civility changes consistently. The speaker begins as a pacifist farmer who follows along with what his community’s attitude was towards the woodchucks. The way that he and his fellow farmers see the woodchucks is a nuisance that needs to be dealt with. As the poem develops the speaker’s hatred towards the woodchucks continues to grow as they continue to evade his attempts to exterminate them all and finally put an end to their continued annoyance to him and the ...
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...portraying the farmer as the person with more power and the woodchucks are targeted as the weaker of the two, is really effective. Through dramatic irony, she shows how a seemingly innocent ideal can become dangerous. When a person is able to justify the extermination of an entire race-or as Kumin portrays in her poem, an entire species- this is when the basis of humanity begins to fade leaving behind a human completely desensitized.
This poem represents the holocaust. It goes through the process of desensitization with woodchucks instead of stating the Jewish people. This poem used many literary devices to help portray the meaning that Kumin wanted to get across to the reader. The two main literary devices that she used to portray her image were dramatic irony and symbolism. These along with the other devices were used seamlessly to help put this poem together.
In the narrative poem “Cautionary Tale of Girls and Birds of Prey” the author, Sandy Longhorn, tells the story of a young girl who is afraid of a hawk, and her inconsiderate father who doesn’t take her concerns seriously. The story shows how her father is determined to get rid of her fear of the hawk, because he thinks it is both foolish and childish. The daughter very well knows the capability of the hawk, however her father doesn’t acknowledge it until it is too late. In the poem, Longhorn uses alliteration and rhyme to help explore the theme of how being inconsiderate towards others can in the end hurt you as much as it hurts them. The poem takes place on a little farm where the girl and her father live with all of their livestock.
The moment of change in the narrator’s personality occurs when the time it takes to kill the woodchucks diminishes and less moral preparation is needed. Before the first kill, the narrator bolsters herself with “Darwinian pieties” allowing justification for survival of the fittest. The Nazis used similar rationale for exterminating those less genetically fit. After convincing herself of these new morals, she starts to kill the woodchucks : “Now drew a bead on the little woodchucks face” (17). … “Ten minutes later I dropped the mother” (19). … “O one-two-three/ the murderer inside me rose up hard” (22-23). At first, the narrator needs time to recover and grieve for the “little woodchuck” she kills. Ultimately, she is able to kill a group within seconds, feels little, if any, compassion for them and takes on the mindset of a killer. The reader can easily imagine the Nazis breaching the same moral barrier when murdering the Jews.
The novel Through Black Spruce is an incredible book that shows the real truth and real life scenario of the First Nation community across Canada, it shows the real hardship and struggles the community faces every day and how they overcome it. The presence of the symbolism does give the novel a whole new meaning to it, the symbolism of beaver representing family and how they stick together, this shows Will bird a bush pilot in the novel, his struggles. The symbol of a bear portrays protection and love, proving once again the hardships the characters face throughout the novel and seeking for protection. While the symbol of Gosse represents seeking freedom, taking on a long journey, and seeking someone is what both of the main characters in the novel try to do. In the novel Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden, reveals to the reader that symbolism is a self-reflection of the character’s struggles’ and culture which helps the reader understand their own way of living.
At the beginning, she presents herself as if she is conflicted as to whether or not she yearns to kill the woodchucks by the means of a gun. As she handles the .22 gun, Kumin experiences the thrill of the "bullets neat noses," holding an item that causes harm to others. During this moment, she discovers how exhilarating it is to work with a gun considering it is unlikely that she has ever utilized one before this moment. Toward the conclusion, Kumin wishes
In order to achieve her objective, Carson has to convince the reader that the farmers are careless about the environment. Carson uses invective throughout the piece to make farmers the “bad guys”. Right off the bat, she uses invective to startle the reader. “As the habit of killing grows- the resort to “eradicating” any creature that may annoy or inconvenience us- birds are more and more finding themselves a direct target of poisons rather than an incidental one.” When the reader reads the first chunk of the sentence, they are immediately captivated by the use of “killing”. It catches them off-guard and makes their minds wander. It also imbeds in the reader’s mind that the farmers are murderers. Using the word “habit” makes the reader think that the farmers kill so often that they do not even think about it. The first line of Silent Spring is perhaps the most powerful line in the piece. It automatically pits the reader against the farmers, because no one roots for the killers. It makes the farmers seem ruthless and malicious without even getting into specifics. As the piece lingers, Carson continues to use harsh and highly critical language to slander the farmers. “…-But the farmers had been...
Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
John Updike’s poem “The Great Scarf of Birds” expresses the varying emotions the narrator experiences as he witnesses certain events from nature. His narration of the birds throughout the poem acts as numerous forms of imagery and symbolism concerning him and his life, and this becomes a recollection of the varying emotional stances he comes to terms with that he has experienced in his life. These changes are so gradually and powerfully expressed because of a fluent use of diction and figurative language, specifically symbolism and simile, and aided by organization.
The next theme used by the author to inspire a feeling of despair in this story is the randomness of persecution. By making the villagers draw these slips of paper once a year would provoke a feeling of hopelessness. Because they know that no matter what they do one day they may be subjected to this brutal death. And it woul...
The overall theme of sadness and lack of a paternal bond is defiantly more powerful because of the imagery that Plath used. The Nazi rule of Germany was a dark time for many people and the references to that ordeal make this poem even more visual. The holocaust is so well known and the comparison of one’s life to details that actually happened shows how extremely depressed the speaker was. Fear is a very strong emotion and it drives people into many difficult situations, but the strength it takes to face those fears is so much stronger. The speaker found the power to overcome the trauma left by her father and she found her closure in the end.
”We are the children of the holocaust. We are both Germans and Jews. We are the children of the victims. We are the children of the oppressors. We started out on opposite sides but the memory of the holocaust will join us forever. We shall never let the victims be forgotten, for if we do, we will forget that the perpetrator can be in all of us.” This poem expresses quite well the sensation that most individuals feel when they hear the word “Holocaust.” Although they may not have been there, or known someone who was, they may still feel an underlying sadness or anger due to the events that took place during World War II. I myself am neither a Jew nor have German decent, and I too become emotional at just the thought of such a devastating occurrence. It is in this sense that I will discuss how the Holocaust has affected not only the Jewish world, but other peoples as well.
Everyone knows the story of Snow White. Everyone knows about the old woman who came to Snow White’s house was actually the queen in disguise, and that the apple the queen gave Snow White was poisoned. But Snow White didn’t. This is a perfect example of irony in a story. Ironic situations like this occur a lot in our daily lives, and many stories, like the short story Lamb to the Slaughter, by Roald Dahl. Throughout the story, Dahl demonstrates many moments of irony, which have a long term effect on the whole story. Dahl’s uses dramatic irony effectively to help enhance the plot and help the reader understand the story better.
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On the surface the poem seems to be a meditation on past events and actions, a contemplative reflection about what has gone on before. Research into the poem informs us that the poem is written with a sense of irony
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Judith Wright's poem `The Killer' explores the relationship between Humans and Nature, and provides an insight into the primitive instincts which characterize both the speaker and the subject. These aspects of the poem find expression in the irony of the title and are also underlined by the various technical devices employed by the poet.