Wendy Chen
8 September 2017
Ellison
Compare and Contrast Essay
The Lost and the Saved Animals are often present in human's lives and arts. In "Traveling through the Dark" by William Stafford and "Woodchucks" by Maxine Kumin, both speakers consider the death of animals, while their relationships with the animals have both similarities and differences. The speaker in "Traveling" has a more humane view on the animals he encounters, compared to the antipathetic, self-centered view in "Woodchucks." Despite this difference, their relationships with animals are similar in that both speakers use modern technology to dominate nature and animals, and their relationships both resolve as the degraded speakers eliminate the animals' presences, revealed …show more content…
While the speaker in "Traveling" is more objective, the speaker in "Woodchucks" is always self-centered. In "Traveling through the Dark," the narrator, while using first-person perspective, is relatively objective in description. He separates himself from the environment to a large extent, and the description is careful and full of details. When feeling warm, he describes "my fingers touching her side brought me the reason—/her side was warm"(9-10). The attention on the dead doe itself may indicate the speaker's relatively humanistic view. Compared to this, in "Woodchucks," the speaker subjectively makes his judgment prevail in the outside world. He has no intention to explain the background as the speaker in "Travelling" does—"Traveling through the dark I found a deer"(1). Instead, he puts forward his judgment in the first line abruptly—"Gassing the woodchucks didn't turn out right"(1). "Didn't turn out right" is a judgment of the speaker, that things goes opposite to his expectation, while he states it as a fact of the world. Human-oriented point of view also presents in judgments such as "range"(6), "righteously"(13), and "neat noses"(14). By eliminating the presence of first-person pronoun, the personal thought prevails in the outward objects. All his actions are for his own …show more content…
In "Woodchucks," the narrator states that he falls "from grace" when he begins to feel hysteria in killing(15）. Which should be a biblical allusion to the loss of grace from God, due to sin in man. What are more evident are the allusions to Nazism, like the end line "gassed underground the quiet Nazi way"(30). Besides this, the total annihilation of woodchuck family (the children, mother, and "old wily fellow"(25)), and the self-recognized "Darwinian pieties"(16), which are used by the Aryans to justify their superiority over the other races. Although these phrases are said in comical tone, they indicates how the speaker's attitude and behavior towards the woodchucks are sinful and unethical. "Traveling in the Dark" is more nuanced. At the beginning, the narrator states that "the road is narrow"(4). It could be from the Gospel of Matthew: "But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it"(The Bible (NIV), Matthew. 7:14). The Wilson River road leads to a dead doe, an alive fawn, and passing though it the speaker survives by sacrificing the fawn. But "life" have different meanings. When the narrator pushes the doe out, he ensures the life of his body on the narrow road, while costs the part of his mental being that once feels and sympathizes with the dead
8 September 2017
Ellison
Compare and Contrast Essay
The Lost and the Saved Animals are often present in human's lives and arts. In "Traveling through the Dark" by William Stafford and "Woodchucks" by Maxine Kumin, both speakers consider the death of animals, while their relationships with the animals have both similarities and differences. The speaker in "Traveling" has a more humane view on the animals he encounters, compared to the antipathetic, self-centered view in "Woodchucks." Despite this difference, their relationships with animals are similar in that both speakers use modern technology to dominate nature and animals, and their relationships both resolve as the degraded speakers eliminate the animals' presences, revealed …show more content…
While the speaker in "Traveling" is more objective, the speaker in "Woodchucks" is always self-centered. In "Traveling through the Dark," the narrator, while using first-person perspective, is relatively objective in description. He separates himself from the environment to a large extent, and the description is careful and full of details. When feeling warm, he describes "my fingers touching her side brought me the reason—/her side was warm"(9-10). The attention on the dead doe itself may indicate the speaker's relatively humanistic view. Compared to this, in "Woodchucks," the speaker subjectively makes his judgment prevail in the outside world. He has no intention to explain the background as the speaker in "Travelling" does—"Traveling through the dark I found a deer"(1). Instead, he puts forward his judgment in the first line abruptly—"Gassing the woodchucks didn't turn out right"(1). "Didn't turn out right" is a judgment of the speaker, that things goes opposite to his expectation, while he states it as a fact of the world. Human-oriented point of view also presents in judgments such as "range"(6), "righteously"(13), and "neat noses"(14). By eliminating the presence of first-person pronoun, the personal thought prevails in the outward objects. All his actions are for his own …show more content…
In "Woodchucks," the narrator states that he falls "from grace" when he begins to feel hysteria in killing(15）. Which should be a biblical allusion to the loss of grace from God, due to sin in man. What are more evident are the allusions to Nazism, like the end line "gassed underground the quiet Nazi way"(30). Besides this, the total annihilation of woodchuck family (the children, mother, and "old wily fellow"(25)), and the self-recognized "Darwinian pieties"(16), which are used by the Aryans to justify their superiority over the other races. Although these phrases are said in comical tone, they indicates how the speaker's attitude and behavior towards the woodchucks are sinful and unethical. "Traveling in the Dark" is more nuanced. At the beginning, the narrator states that "the road is narrow"(4). It could be from the Gospel of Matthew: "But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it"(The Bible (NIV), Matthew. 7:14). The Wilson River road leads to a dead doe, an alive fawn, and passing though it the speaker survives by sacrificing the fawn. But "life" have different meanings. When the narrator pushes the doe out, he ensures the life of his body on the narrow road, while costs the part of his mental being that once feels and sympathizes with the dead