Traveling Through the Dark free essay sample

Swerve means to go off path to get around something. Although not all situations are choices, there are times when a person must stop and make a choice to take another path. The author’s choice to use the word ‘swerve’ represents the uncertainty of life and how often people come across situations that were not at first apart of their path, and swerving is the only opinion in order to get where they want to be. The setting is dark and fills the poem with a feeling of danger and suspense; the suspense of a decision between life and death. Traveling through the dark† not only shows the narrator literally traveling at night, but also shows confusion. The narrator is all alone in the dark of the night with no one to help make a choice. Also the quotation â€Å"I stood in the warm exhaust turning red† symbolizes the fawn and the dead mother. We will write a custom essay sample on Traveling Through the Dark or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page ‘Red’ indicates death and blood, and ‘warm’ signifies the warmth being exposed from the deer’s stomach because of the life inside of it. It also appeals to the senses of sight and touch because the narrator can see the dead deer but was unable to notice the fawn until he touched the mother’s stomach. The author also uses personification in line fourteen, â€Å"under the hood purred the steady engine. † The author gives the inside of the car life like actions, although realistically, the car is not alive. Just as, the deer itself is not alive, yet inside of it a fawn is living, breathing, and being supported off of its dead mother. â€Å"Her fawn lay there waiting, alive, still, never to be born. Beside that mountain road I hesitated. † The narrator felt no guilt in throwing the â€Å"heap† over the side of the canyon. However, upon learning that beside him there lay a fawn waiting on his decision; waiting for her inevitable fate to be revealed, the narrator’s mind is changed. He believes death is a part of life, and it is not be grieved over, but rather to be only respected. But life on the other hand, is to be valued, and although it is remarkable that the fawn is still being supported, there are other lives at stake that deserve to be cherished. The narrator encountered his â€Å"only swerving† and â€Å"thought hard for us all† and chose to throw the dead deer and her living fawn over the edge for â€Å"to swerve might make more dead. † Traveling Through the Dark free essay sample The poem by William Stafford, â€Å"Traveling Through the Dark† presents readers with an uncomfortable and rather grim instance of the intersection of the natural world and that of man. Technology, in this case cars and the man-made road, are seen as something invasive and harmful in this poem. In order to convey the meaning of the poem â€Å"Traveling Through the Dark† by William Stafford uses a conversational style to communicate the theme in the poem of the role of technology in modern life and, more importantly, the theme of man versus nature becomes apparent. There are multiple ways of perceiving the poem and the tensions between man and technology it presents. One viewpoint, as expressed by Judith Kitchen in her book â€Å"Writing the World: Understanding William Staffordâ€Å", suggests that the poem by Stafford, â€Å"Traveling Through the Dark† demonstrates â€Å"the encroachment of mechanized society on the wilderness† (Kitchen). For Kitchen, this poem deceptively simple and straightforward title of the poem by William Stafford, â€Å"Travelling Through the Dark† and its conversational style belie an incredibly deep sense of pain and guilt that the narrator suffers through. We will write a custom essay sample on Traveling Through the Dark or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page By examining the way the poem uses language to express these emotions, particularly by looking at the way certain objects take on a life (the car, for instance, which itself â€Å"aims† and swerves† as though it is the embodiment of man and technology) Kitchen expresses how the poem by Stafford â€Å"Traveling Through the Dark† hides a complex message about man and nature behind deceptively simple phrasing, syntax, and tone. She points out ways in which some very simple word choices in the poem by William Stafford, â€Å"Traveling Through the Dark† take on monumental importance, stating, for example, that when the poet refers to the â€Å"group† witnessing this event, â€Å"The group appears to be the man, the deer, the unborn fawn, and by extension, all of nature† (Kitchen). In short, Judith Kitchen assists the casual reader of this poem to see past the conversational style and into the more metaphorical and implicit meanings of what seem like blunt word and image choices on the part of Stafford. Kitchen is not alone in her perception of this poem as a statement about the collision of man and technology. In his article, â€Å"Traveling Through the Dark: The Wilderness Surrealism of the Far West† by William Young, the images and sounds of machines and nature are at the apex of its meaning. As he points out, â€Å"In Stanza Four, we have the juxtaposition of machine and wilderness, complicated by the animal ‘purr’ of the motor and the human listening of the wilderness† (Young 193). While his article examines the role of surrealism in this poem, this lending of human characteristics to nature and machines (and the reverse as well) is part of the surreal quality of the poem. Young is interested in the way the sounds of machines are like those in nature and how some of the same images one finds in nature are part of both humanity and technology simultaneously. In short, Young presents a very broad scope in his discussion of this poem and he looks at the vast nature of the message he suggests Stafford is trying to convey. As both articles suggest, there is a clear message in the poem about the intersection of man, nature, and technology. The narrator’s car itself is like a character in the poem and as Young suggests, it â€Å"purrs† and seems to make its own decisions to swerve. It is careless and driven by something mindless—something not in touch with the more gently representation of nature. It is worth noting that the deer is a doe that is pregnant and is thus nature at its weakest and most vulnerable. The opposition between a motor and a man-made road and the natural world is obvious and the man must push the deer into the river, which is back into the circulation of the natural world. There is a tension here and the poem’s aim is to make the reader see this as a negative encounter. The speaker, as Kitchen suggests, is almost afraid to utter strong words and he skirts around things he might otherwise say in a more blunt fashion, as would fit with the conversational tone of the poem. For instance, instead of saying the deer was pregnant, he says, â€Å"I dragged her off, she was large in the belly. The sense is that it would be too difficult—to human—to suggest she was pregnant. Instead, the narrator puts it in a way we can digest. He cannot come out and discuss the impact of car (technology) on the natural world, but skirts around it and discusses the deer as something entirely different and alien from the man-made elements surrounding her. The uncomfortable way the narrator describes the event, along with interesting choices of words and phrasing, makes the reader aware that this oem is meant to reflect the idea that this was a negative experience and that man and technology are encroaching on the wilderness and causing harm. The fact that it was not just a deer but a pregnant female deer is important because it shows nature at its most vulnerable. It also shows the way that technology and man feel obligated to â€Å"do something† in nature, even if it is a service (like removing a dead deer from the road) and presents the way this is an uncomfortable task as it highlights the tensions between man and nature.