Compare And Contrast Birdfoot's Grampa

"Birdfoot's Grampa" vs. "Traveling Through the Dark"

“Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.” by unknown. In the poems “Birdfoot’s Grampa” by Joseph Bruchac and “Traveling Through the Dark” by William Stafford, the value of life is. In the poem “Birdfoot’s Grampa” by Joseph Bruchac all types and forms of life are valued. On the other hand, in the poem “Traveling Through the Dark” by William Stafford the view on the value of life is not as clear. The views on the value of life is responsible for the outcome of the poems mostly due to the personalities of the characters.

In the poem “Birdfoot’s Grampa”, the main character is portrayed as wise and selfless. Wisdom comes with age which really shows with Grampa. He was a very selfless man and a very wise one as well. In lines 1-7 his

selflessness really showed.

“The old man must’ve stopped our car two dozen times.” It was a rainy summer night when the speaker and Grampa were driving down the road. Grampa did not give a thought about the fact it was raining and still got out of the car to help the toads. In the poem, line 5 “Small toads blinded” the toads are described as blinded because they’re not aware of how small they are compared to the rest of the world. They are so small compared to humans and the other types of life in this world but are not aware of it. So, Grampa knew this and saw that, which is why he helped the toad’s cross safely. The character in “Traveling Through the Dark” is showing a lack of judgement and wisdom. He is a very shortsighted person and doesn’t open his mind to anything but his own views. The character in “Traveling Through the Dark” is the complete opposite of Grampa. The character is very naive in the sense of his actions. Lines 3-4 “It is usually best to roll them into the canyon.” The word usually is normally used when someone has little

time to think of a good answer or come up with another solution. Also, showing the lack of judgement in the character. He thought about what people usually do instead of thinking of other solutions to the problem. He thought about the human race over the fawn in line 4. “To swerve might make more dead.” He wasn’t saying if someone swerved it would make more animals dead but it would make more humans dead. He was thinking of humans before the unborn fawn whose life was resting in his hands. Although the two characters view values of life in a different way, they both still care about a certain type of life. Grampa cares about all while the other character favors humans over any other. The outcomes of the two poems were heavily influenced by the way the characters view the importance of life.
How do you think the outcomes of the two poems would be if the characters were put in one another’s settings? Well, there is a strong chance that Grampa would’ve saved the fawn and the character from “Traveling Through the Dark” wouldn’t have batted an eye at the toads. Although Grampa was being rushed by the speaker, he still understood that everyone no matter what type of life has a life to live. Lines 19-20 he was being rushed and looked at the speaker and said “They have places to go too.” If you put Grampa in “Traveling Through the Dark” he will understand that the fawn has a whole life to live. He was knee deep in the summer roadside grass helping toads get across the road which are much smaller than a fawn so Grampa would definitely have tried to save the fawn. Grampa was told “You can’t save them all.” in lines 11-13. He knew he couldn’t save them all but he definitely tried. On the other hand, if you put the character from “TRaveling Through the Dark”, the toads would be the last worry for him. His first initial thought about what to do with the doe was in lines 3-4, “It’s usually best to roll them into the canyon.” He wasn’t attempting trying to come up with another solution so if he was driving down the road in “Birdfoot’s Grampa”, the toads would not be safe. When he was coming to a decision in lines 17 and 18 “I thought hard for us all.” He was only thinking of humans and not the fawn. On the other hand, Grampa was thinking about every form of life. The two are completely different which is why by putting them in the opposite settings, the outcomes may have been affected.
No matter what someone says or thinks about you, never doubt your worth and your true value. What someone thinks or believes of you does not determine your value. In the two poems the value of life was expressed through the personalities of the characters. The outcomes of the poems were heavily influenced on how the two characters saw the value of life. The two had different views which led to the different outcomes of each poem. Through the eyes of Grampa, every life no matter how big or small shall be valued. Yet, through the eyes of the man in “Traveling Through the Dark” it is much different than that. Life is a valuable thing and although the two characters see it differently it is something precious and important.