The Theme Of Maxe Kumin's Poem 'The Quarrel'

The poem “The Quarrel” by Maxine Kumin is a tale of four friends who are arguing over who they are. They think they are the same but each has different qualities which make them different. They are slowly growing in the volume of their voices that it turns to shouting. This attracts the attention of a bird which swoops down and devours all of them, this concludes the story. The setting of the poem is never told in full other than the time of day. It starts out at night and continues into the morning when the bird is awoken. The theme of this story is that everybody has special traits about them, but nobody is exactly the same so do not try to make someone what they are not. The theme of the poem “The Quarrel” is that everybody has special traits about them, but nobody is exactly the same so do not try to make someone what they are not. This is because of the bickering and arguing between friends who think they are all the same species. The fly in the poem even makes a joke to this matter. It says, “ ‘Silly dunce!’ said the fly. ‘What bug ever flew? Those are fireflies. And so are you.’ ” (4). The characters act like the matter at hand is a joke in the beginning, but soon the issue escalated. Their laughing voices grow into shouting as one another grows in anger towards their friends. It is almost to the point of fighting over the issue as stated, “‘Fly!’ cried the fly. ‘Worm!’ cried the worm. ‘Bug!’ cried the bug. ‘I’m standing firm!’” (10). After this shouting, they