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Poetic devices and figurative language
Essay on symbolism in literature
Poetic devices and figurative language
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It is universally acknowledged that all creatures on Earth fare by survival of the fittest. In the case of “Woodchucks” by Maxine Kumin and “Traveling Through the Dark”by William Stafford, the power dynamic of human and animal is illustrated. Each speaker encounters animals, and approaches their situation with a different attitude but identical decision. The speaker in “Woodchucks”, a farmer, is struggling with a Woodchuck infestation and resolves to shooting the woodchucks on the farm one by one. Meanwhile, the speaker in “Traveling Through the Dark” is conflicted about what should be done with a dead pregnant deer left on a empty road, and whether he should push her off the cliff to avoid any future accidents. In the two poems, each of the …show more content…
In “Woodchucks”, the speaker’s tone shifts greatly throughout the different stages of the poem. Initially, irritation is sensed, as the most “humane” way to kill the woodchucks does not work-gassing. The primary allusion to the Jews during Hitler’s regime is also introduced in this tone. The tone then develops into one of excitement, or “Righteously thrilling/ to the feel of the .22” [13-14], as the farmer begins to shoot the woodchucks, depicting each death in a dramatic way. Word choice such as “flip flopped” indicate a careless attitude towards the lives of the animals. But with a tinge of disappointment the speaker, “a lapsed pacifist fallen from grace” [15], transitions the tone in a compelling way. By the final stanza, the tone reverts back to a distinct irritation. With the second allusion to the Jewish and Hitler “If only they’d all consented to die unseen/ gassed underground the quiet Nazi way” [29-30], the farmer yearns for a quiet departure, fleeing the consequences of the kill from the farmer’s humanity, hence alleviating his blame. The aforementioned shifts in tone, with irritation, frustration, thrill, and disappointment, showcase a negative attitude towards the woodchucks, and ultimately, humanity’s power over the value of the life of an
Maxine Kumin?s, Woodchucks provides an interesting and creative perspective into the mind state of those influenced by nazi warfare. What begins as a seemingly humorous cat and mouse hunt, reminiscent of such movie classics as Caddyshack, soon develops into an insatiable lust for blood. Kumin?s descriptive language provides the reader with the insight necessary to understand to the speaker?s psychology as they are driven beyond the boundaries of pacifism.
The poem's situation is simple, a lone traveler driving along a desolate canyon road spots a felled deer; the traveler, desiring neither to hit the deer, nor by swerving to avoid it, hurtle his car over the canyon precipice, stops his vehicle and proceeds to push the fallen animal over the canyon face, into the river below. As the driver struggles to displace the cold, stiff deer corpse he senses warmth emanating from its abdomen, it's an unborn fawn. Realizing that life remains in the body he had assumed dead, the traveler hesitates. Finally, he pushes the deer, one dead and the other not yet alive, off the road and into the chasm.
In the first stanza of the poem, the speaker clearly identifies that some woodchucks are annoying her. To solve this problem, the speaker uses gas as a way to eliminate the pests quickly and painlessly much like the Nazis tried to eradicate the Jews from their presence. Gassing the woodchucks is an easy way to remove the pests because using gas does not involve looking at the victims as they are put to death. This is also why the Nazis used the gassing methods to kill the Jews. After time this method was not as widely used due to the resilience of the woodchucks and Jews. Thus, this led the killers to use more ruthless techniques.
A situation is presented that causes the readers a predicament. In the “Rattler” a short story a man must make a decision to kill a snake, or let it live taking in consideration his obligation to protect his farm and the people and animals in it. The author first presents the man with his point of view making him favorable to the readers showing his conflict in which he has to complete a duty despite his own morals for the protection of everyone else. The author then presents the snake as an innocent in the situation by using details that show the snake is not an evil being but rather a harmless victim. In “The Rattler” the man’s encounter with a snake leads him to do an obligation that he later feels remorseful for. The
Distinctive voices offer many different types of perspectives of the world. This is expressed through the texts “Lady feeding the cats” and “Wombat" written by Douglas Stewart and“Shawshank redemption” also written by Frank Darabont. These notions are applied through exploration of humanity and connections between humanity and the nature. The unique interaction of the world offers us a better understanding of these perceptions.
Right from the beginning, it poem seemed pretty dark. The speaker was already talking about gassing the little woodchucks. It shows the hatred she had toward the woodchucks rather clearly. It goes on with her talking about the “humane” methods she had use to drive the woodchucks away but did not work -- “Next morning they turned up again”(Kumin 15). This was probably the trigger that made her begins her monstrous actions.
Pathos is liberally sprinkled throughout the passage and is used as a driving point in Carson’s argument. Used more prominently in the second and fourth paragraph, the pictures painted of dying, pitiful animals (“... And in the other the pitiful heaps of many-hue feathers, the lifeless remains of birds...”) and caricatures of careless farmers (“...Doomed by a judge and jury who neither knew of their existence nor cared.”) appeal to the morals deep within us that unconsciously push us to cheer for the underdog. In this case, pathos is used to underline the suffering of the wildlife and the carelessness of the those who did the deed of spraying nature.
In Annie Dillard’s essay “Living Like Weasels,” she describes her encounter with a wild weasel, and how her recent research of the tenacious animal has led her to consider how humans live and what makes us so different from the beasts. Similarly, in a more domestic encounter, I too have been led to consider the nature of human life and why we should behave so differently from our animal counterparts. We can learn many lessons from even the most common creatures, and I feel that there is one perspective in particular we must reconsider adopting; a protective nature of empathy and love that will make us contemplate the difference between survival and living.
Animals can be used in literature to convey many things, including human views and experiences in the world. Ted Hughes’ poem “Hawk Roosting” and Mark Doty’s poem “Golden Retrievals” assist in showing these concepts. The first poem listed is clearly about a hawk, while the latter describes a dog. These two animals have very different characteristics and differing views of the world, which are exhibited by the several literary techniques used by the poets. Firstly, Ted Hughes characterizes the hawk in “Hawk Roosting” through using imagery, metaphor, and symbolism. The main instance of imagery occurs in the second stanza of the poem. “The convenience of the high trees! / The air’s buoyancy and the sun’s ray...” (Hughes 5-6). This shows the reader that the hawk enjoys being
In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, one major theme that is expressed throughout is the theme that animals have instincts, while humans have reasoning. Rainsford and his close friend, Whitney, hunt animals for sport. At one point, they argue with each other about whether or not animals have emotions. Rainsford does not agree with Whitey and believes that animals don’t have fear or feelings and are meant to be hunted. Whitney says with confidence in her voice, “‘Even so, I rather think they understand one thing--fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death. Nonsense,” laughed Rainsford”’ (Connell 1). Although Whitney and Rainsford hunt animals for entertainment, they both have different opinions on how animals react
In the poem, Overload written by Lily Brett made the readers question the morality of the Nazis, as the poem conveyed the utter disrespect for the victims, as they were ‘burning for five hours’. This imagery helps convey the idea that the Nazis treated the Jews, or their corpses, with respect or dignity they deserved, which led the readers to feel socked and hopeless. Lily Brett’s other poem, Children II, presented the idea that the Nazis didn’t care who died, and they found it easier to kill the children, which questions the psychological side of the Nazis, as it should be harder to kill children because of their innocence. Additionally in the poem Overload, the onomatopoeia helps emphasise the Nazis malicious actions against the Jews, as the ‘hissing, spitting, glistening’ bodies were burned. The ‘hissing, spitting, glistening’ assists the readers to comprehend what the fire and bodies would have looked and sounded like. Furthermore, in the poem Children II, Brett uses the poetic technique onomatopoeia to communicate the children’s dreadful deaths, as the Nazis were ‘snapping their backs’ and ‘flung into the air’. Onomatopoeia helps express the tragic acts of killing the innocent and vulnerable children, which leaves the reader to resent the cold-blooded Nazis, as the readers believe it is harder to murder children than
Throughout time, mankind and nature were always in altered societies or different classes. Robert Burns, the author of To a Mouse, used a style of writing that incorporates both nature and mankind. The poem illustrates a sympathetic situation in which a farmer is walking through their field and unintentionally disturbs the nest of a mouse. Robert Burns uses the two different classes to express the farmer’s sympathy towards a society unlike his own. The poem shows a strong connection between two different societies and a questionable superiority.
Billy and his hounds face unexpected struggles each time they hunt. For example, there is always a battle to catch the coons. The first time Billy goes hunting, the hounds tree a coon in the biggest sycamore tree in the forest. For two whole days, Billy chips away at the tree until it finally falls down and the coon is caught. Billy is hot, exhausted, and aches all over. Another example of man versus nature is the weather during the Championship Coon Hunt. During this hunt, Billy and his hounds face a terrible blizzard. The winter weather is described as roaring and “the north wind seemed to be laughing at us” (202). The wind blows and the snow falls so fast that the Earth is instantly covered. Even the hounds have to stay in constant motion to keep from freezing to death. The biggest conflict occurs at the end of the story. Billy and his hounds encounter their biggest opponent, a mountain lion. All alone, they struggle with the wild creature that Billy refers to as a “devil cat” (226). The mountain lion has “yellow slitted eyes that burned with hate” (226). Billy watches as his hounds and the mountain lion tear at each other and fight till the end.
“Hawk Roosting” and “Golden Retrievals” show contrasting views of the world through an animal's perspective. The “hawk” looks upon the world as if it were his own, like a god, However, the “dog” sees life in the moment, and in a simplistic way. These two poems use poetic devices like contrasting tones, various diction, and vivid imagery.
The short story “The White Heron” has a benevolent view of nature and it’s interactions with mankind, as opposed to “The Law of Life” by Jack London. That particular story conveys a message of inevitable death, and an unforgiving nature that demands complete obedience and can only promise one thing to an individual. That they shall meet their impending doom, though none can say where or when. Here, we shall compare and contrast a multitude of different motifs and underlying themes, including the opposition of nature to mankind, the interactions of the protagonists with nature, and the role of the antagonists, whether it is natural or not.