A Simple Farmer’s Dark Side The speaker of Maxine Kumin’s “Woodchucks” is a farmer or gardener, angered by the pesky woodchucks in his/her garden, However, underneath the simple story of a farmer trying to get rid of woodchucks is a disturbing metaphor about World War II and the evil inside everyone. The evil side of the speaker develops throughout the poem with each stanza showing more and more anger and even thrill and satisfaction in the killing. “Woodchucks” begins with an explanation of how the first effort, more merciful than the rest, doesn’t kill the woodchucks. The speaker, a farmer, develops a growing hatred for the woodchucks in their garden and realizes the evil they never knew was inside them. In the first stanza, the speaker
Twain illustrates Such a scenario when Huckleberry struggles with keeping Jim from Miss Watson, after he says he would steal his family back from their slave owners. Huckleberry's conscience says to him "what had poor Miss Watson done to [him], that [he] could see her nigger go off right under [his] eyes and never say one single word? "(Twain 138) Huckleberry begins to regret not turning Jim in because he believes that he steals from a woman that did nothing wrong and that Jim's family belongs to a man who did not do him harm and work be harmed by Jim's actions that he would of wrongfully facilitated. This makes his conscience "[stir] up hotter than ever"(Twain 139) because in reflection to morals taught to him in the "book", the bible, by Miss Watson, it is a sin and wrongful to hurt another and steal.In Michael Lackey essay, Beyond Good and Evil: Huckleberry Finn on Human Intimacy, Lackey states that "For there to be an objective moral value, there must first be a God who spoke it into being. "(Lackey 493) From this statement one can suggest that Huckleberry's morals were spoken into fruition by God, thus why he claim it is wrong to loot and maltreat others, which is against the bible, yet with prejudice, based on his own feeling, he ultimately does not betray Jim.
This can be noticed throughout the book and in the three scenes talked about before because the white characters in the book often times make irrational comments about slaves that relate to what they are doing themselves. Twain’s use of irony the scene about Huck being upset with the fact that Jim would steal his family back if he had too, shows that Huck did not think Jim should be able to and was not deserving enough to have his own family. This shows the greater truth of slavery because even though Huck likes Jim, he did not agree with Jim’s want to have a free family. The scene where the Duke, the King, and Huck are categorizing slaves as thieves, when they themselves are thieves shows the greater truth of slavery that slaves were categorized into certain types of people, even though it was not true of all slaves. The scene were Tom says that he would hang a slave if they were ungrateful and ranaway shows the greater truth of slavery that if a slave disobeyed, they deserved death.
This struggle is present throughout the novel and creates an important thematic image of natural, free individualism contrasted with the expectations of society. Huck’s frustration continues in his listing all the admonishments he receives from Miss Watson: “ ‘Don’t put your feet up there, Huckleberry’; and ‘Don’t scrunch up like that, Huckleberry—set up straight’; and pretty soon she would say, ‘Don’t gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry—why don’t you try to behave?’ ” (Twain 2). Huck’s repetition enhances his confined feelings and shows how “tiresome and lonesome” he feels after each of cycle of clean clothes, serious meal, spelling lesson, scolding, boredom. Then,
The image is connected to my thesis because, the father yelling at the poor little helpless child in the image is being abusive and is making a negative impact on the child’s mental wellbeing. 2) “Then I’m flat on my back from a blow to the side of my face.” – This quote is connected to the thesis statement because in the quote, Dylan gets punched in the face by his father which shows physical abuse and is negative. The research is connected to my thesis statement because my research data shows that 1 in 14 children have been physically abused in
The subject vends the blackberries to earn a profit, and to finance a living for him or herself. While other characters mentioned later in the poem receive the pleasures
Then, he proceeded to create his unfortunate “death” scene. He beat down the door to the cabin and spread pig 's blood everywhere to make the cabin look like a murder scene. He also carefully laid some of his hair on the now bloody ax to make it appear as if he has been killed. Huck finally cut open a sack of flour and made an artificial trail to make it seem like the killer left through a lake that does not connect to the river Then he entered his canoe and rode out on the river in the pitch black night. Where it could of went wrong was that Pap returned early from town sober and could have seen him.
In Rich’s story, the homeowner first seems fairly innocent, and is shown to simply find the woodchucks annoying. The thoughts that the woodchucks are a burden seems to be a popular opinion throughout her family. As the end of the poem nears, the woodchucks become the victim of her killing spree. The protagonist ends up becoming an antagonist because of how
By not telling the same lie and being comfortable with it, it shows that he is naive in the sense not figuring out that it’s morally wrong and Huck is going to a struggle to find what’s exactly is morally ‘right’. b. In Chapter 40 of Huckleberry Finn it states: “I knowed he was white in the inside, and I reckoned he’d say what he did say-so it was all right now(Twain 271). i. This is significant because it shows readers how Huck is still struggling with finding that a black person could be kind.
Szymborska systematically undoes the damage inflicted upon Lot’s wife by undermining the smug certainty of moralization in response to the human story. In the first line of the poem we are introduced to the idea that curiosity was reason for her disobedience. Her story is then completely unraveled into a flurry of potential alternatives juxtaposing the simple and tragic moral tale “they” reduced it to in order to communicate that disobedience equates to destruction. In the line “A hamster on its hind paws tottered on the edge. It was then we both glanced back.” we see lot’s wife and the rodent mirror each other.