On a literal level, Maxine Kumin is telling a story about killing woodchucks in her, appropriately named poem, “Woodchucks.” But, like many other works of literature, there is a much deeper, darker undertone in this poem. Through her change in diction and use of adaptive details, Kumin reveals the tragic transformation of the rodent exterminating narrator. From beginning to end, diction is used to illustrate a certain form of corruption taking place within the narrator. In the beginning, the narrator wants to eradicate her pests in the most humane way possible, describing her first attempt at extermination as “merciful” and “quick.” This humanitarian view on the extermination soon turns to a “righteously thrilling” hunt for the woodchucks. The narrator loses respect for the mammal in a short ten minutes, after shooting the little woodchuck, she watches him die in the rose garden. She is very short in her description of its death because she is somewhat embarrassed of the fact that she actually pulled the trigger and shot an innocent creature. In fact, she will not even admit that she killed …show more content…
While most changes of this magnitude take place over long periods of time, this transformation happens over a few days at the most. This quick transition shows that even though the narrator may be upset with her changes, she didn’t try to stop them from happening. It was as if she had no limits on how far she would go to rid her garden of these pests. First it was a simple gassing, then cyanide, and finally shooting them. After it was all over, there was no true remorse, only pointing fingers at the very thing she was trying to kill. Which leads to the question, did she kill the woodchucks out of necessity in the beginning or did she start out simply wanting to kill for the thrill of
“Owls” by Mary Oliver is a complex and imaginative view of nature and an analysis of its beauty and, at the same time, frightening aspects through the lens of Oliver. Throughout her story, Oliver explores the paradoxical anomalies of nature: the beauty contrasted with the fear as well as the complexity contrasted with simplicity. Using sensory language, parallel structure, and alliteration, Oliver establishes her awe-struck yet cautious view of nature as a paradoxical masterpiece.
Diction is just one of the literary elements used in this short story which convey the narrator's attitude towards Bartleby.
In reading the second part of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, one could clearly see the roles corruption was playing in Annawadi, specifically within institutions as law enforcement, and the issues that arise from this. Corruption can be start to be seen in Annawadi, especially for Abdul and his family in the immediate aftermath of Fatima burning herself alive. With Abdul’s family deciding upon renovating and improving upon their home, it became clear to their surrounding neighbors that the family was a bit more well off then the majority of the community, they had a bit better of an economic situation. Fatima, being infuriated with the renovation process set herself on fire, and eventually was able to implicate Abdul’s family of driving her
The novel A Day No Pigs Would Die follows the life of a farm boy in rural Vermont and the harsh realities that come with that lifestyle. This book covers complex themes such as depression at a young age and the connection between humans and animals. While this book does have redeeming lessons taught throughout the exploration of those themes, there are some scenes that cause serious concern. These scenes are so controversial that steps need to be taken in terms of censorship. This book should be banned from all middle and elementary schools because of its several examples of brutal graphic violence and animal abuse.
Violent imagery characterizes the ruthless and cruel forest by describing how the forest has been eating itself to live forever. “...a choir of seedlings arching their necks out of rotted tree stumps, sucking life out of death” (Kingsolver 5). The setting in this novel is defined by this quote. In order to survive, one must be willing to put their needs first, or else they will suffer the consequences. In this world, nothing is safe. The forest
She admits that a “lapsed pacifist” such as herself can be filled with “Darwinian pieties” to murder, specifically referencing the woodchucks destroying the landscape. Though the narrator may seem to simply realize her obsession with killing the woodchucks, her overall connotation leads readers to consider the possibility of a preoccupation to execute humans as well. This theme continues throughout the remaining stanzas in the poem, as the speaker utilizes phrases such as “the murderer inside me” and “if only they’d consented to die unseen.” These lines insinuate that the speaker represents one who murders people rather than a hunter of rodents. The use of violent, personified vocabulary throughout the entire poem also signifies the speaker’s focus on human violence. The strand of harsh and sometimes humanized words such as “beheading,” “gassing,” “nipping,” “killing,” and “bullets” inflict a negative connotation for the narrator’s actions. These words are not always used when referring to the woodchucks; the “beheading” refers to a patch of carrots, which signifies that this violent connotation is intentional. If the speaker simply aims to reflect an innocent woodchuck hunt, she should not use such violent or personal vocabulary. Therefore, the incorporation of this strand of words along with the narrator’s description of her own actions signifies the overall personification of the rodents in the speaker’s
The poem “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver connects the both the natural and human world as it compares human life to the travels of wild geese. Touching on the landscapes of the natural world and emotions faced by the average person; Oliver manages to use devices such as tone, metaphors and descriptive images to convey a message that helps a person view life from a different perspective. Oliver makes it clear that the relationship between the wild and the human is coexistence; where one universe continues on if the parallel seems to have stopped. Thus, Oliver is able to move the reader on a comforting journey as she entangles the natural world and human world, showing that the natural world has more
So her trek into the woods was to kill an elk, like she had done with her father. However, it was the encounter with two older men, who assisted in gutting out the elk, that she had learned the most. “Did this make them somehow, distinctly like… fathers and daughter? The two men becoming the soil then, in their burial, as had her father- becoming as still and silent as stone.” Here, the connection between human interaction, and experiences with nature is shown vividly.
The author uses pathos to get people to feel sympathy for the family in the village who lost their son when he got mauled by a lion. This quote greatly supports the author's purpose for writing this article. Finally he supports this claim asserting people are too ignorant to make a feasible claim about the situation. He uses diction and parallel structure to appeal to pathos when stating, “Don’t tell us what to do with our animals when you allow your own mountain lions to be hunted to near extinction in the eastern United States. Don’t bemoan the clear-cutting of our forest when you turn yours into concrete jungles.” The author uses parallel structure when repeating, “Don’t “ to emphasise his overall point. He also uses diction to assert his claim when he uses the words, “extinction, bemoan, and concrete jungles”. He specifically used these words to get us to feel the injustice about how the Americans are acting about Cecil’s death. Overall, Nzou combines his condemnatory and critical tone with these appeals to effectively point out to the people who are “crying” about Cecil’s death that lions are harmful to people and killing lions happens all the time in the area. This article would be informative to the public who are outraged about Cecil’s death and
Three things which are figuratively stolen within the novel the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, are Hassan and Amir’s entitlement to know the reality about their family, Hassan’s right to know who his real father is, and Sohrab's entitlement to have a childhood. Hassan and Amir both grow up together however neglect to understand they are not master and servant, truth be told they are stepbrothers. "I'm 38 years of age and I've recently discovered my entire life is one major fucking lie" (Hosseini, 235) he proceeds, "there is one and only sin. Furthermore that is robbery… I was discovering that Baba had been a hoodlum… on the grounds that he'd stolen me the right to know I had a sibling, from Hassan his character (Hosseini, 237)".
The second and third stanzas bring out the true violence in the speaker. She claims that she is a peaceful person but has been driven to violence. Thus natural selection is responsible for the woodchuck’s death, not her. This is just like the Nazis killing the Jewish people during the Holocaust. The Nazis saw the Jews as an inferior race that irritated them. The Nazis then took natural selection into their own hands and exterminating all the Jews.
“The Mouse” is a short story written by H.H Munro. The main characters are Theodoric, the mouse, and the blind lady. The author Munro writes the story in third person and uses an omniscient view. The setting of the story takes part in the vicarage, the stable, and the ends in train compartment. The tone used by the author to engage his readers is an exciting, thrilling fast paced tone that bring the characters to life. To strengthen the thrilling exciting tone, the author uses phrases such as: “he was not even alone in his own clothes. “A warm, creeping movement over his flesh betrayed the unwelcome and highly resented presence, unseen but poignant, of a strayed mouse.” After reading the quote above, I as the reader was drawn into the
“ In the cold of night, i could hear my father's car keening in the distance you're one in a million,” It cried. Ashleighs parents have been divorced for 2 years. Her father gets a chance at something big but doesn't have the money. He then offers Ashleigh the chose to steal the money from her mother's tea pot, or not to and let him suffer. She then chooses to steal the money from why her mother. Ashleigh stole the money because she had fantasies about the money, she thinks he will pay her back, and that she likes her father more than her mother.
In Woodchucks, a poem by Maxine Kumin, a gardener is having problems with woodchucks invading her garden. She attempts to kill the woodchucks with cyanide gas, but the Woodchucks wouldn’t die. The pacifist gardener, resorts to violence and shoots the woodchucks with a rifle. She was hoping for an easy solution but ended up going against her peace loving ways and turned violent. Throughout the poem, Maxine Kumin slowly reveals the underlying meaning of her writing. Kumin emphasizes that there are violent thoughts and tendencies in every individual by referencing real life events, by escalading the tone of the poem, and by using a series of literary devices.
Once upon a time there lived a lanky little rat named Rudy. Rudy’s fur was very dull and felt like needles. She lived in a tiny village where all the animals knew each other. Every afternoon she would meet with her friends at the riverbank to tell stories of their morning. One day Rudy scurried to the riverbank excited to share with her friends a cheesecake she had baked just for them, but when she arrived at the meeting spot, no one was there. Worried and confused, Rudy hurried in to town to look for her friends there. Just as she reached the main road, her body froze as she watched the most beautiful creature strolling through town. Rudy looked around and noticed she was not the only animal in the village mesmerized by this beautiful