G.K. Chesterton's The Donkey

G.K. Chesterton's The Donkey

As discussed in earlier papers, poets use devices to help enhance their images to the reader. One device not yet discussed is a symbol. John Drury, a poet, explains a symbol as, "an image that radiates meanings" (Gioia 276). Whatever the image is that each poet chooses to use creates a different and separate from another poet's use of that same image. Also, it is possible for a reader to see a symbol in a word or object that the author had never intended. In G.K. Chesterton's, "The Donkey," the donkey is a symbol for the some of today's society view people of mixed races and how people with multiple backgrounds will have their finest "hour" (Line 13).

In "The Donkey," Chesterton describes how the donkey is looked upon by people and when the donkey had been chosen by the greatest Creator of all. The first stanza begins with the donkey's birth, "When fishes flew and forests walked/….Some moment when the moon was blood/ Then surely I was born" (Lines 1-4). These lines are representative of the fact that the world must have been turned upside down in order for the donkey to be born. In the fourth line the reader knows the donkey is negative about himself because "I" is the animal describing himself. The donkey goes on to say that he is, "The devil's walking parody" (Line 7). Seeing himself as a creature of the devil instead of a wonderful animal created by God, is showing how distorted his self image is. He feels he is, "The tattered outlaw of the earth" (Line 9), which furthermore expresses the hatred he feels from the world. Tattered means, a torn piece and the word outlaw means, exile; criminal, make or declare illegal. All the word choices combine emphasizes how Chesterton wanted the reader to fully understand that the donkey was an unpleasant creature. Though in the last stanza, the donkey has his laugh, "Fools! For I also had my hour" (Line 13). Although, the donkey is a mixed breed, he was loved and chosen by the one person who has the greatest power- Jesus.

Flipping through daytime television, there are several shows which focus on interracial marriages and mixed children. Every culture has their own separate opinion about what they believe to be morally right. As with the donkey, some feel that biracial people are less than a person than those with only one ethnic background.