WOOF. THUMP. Silence. Those are the sounds you hear when you are driving down the road, going 20 miles over the speed limit, and you hit a family dog that was simply crossing the street. You wouldn’t just leave it there, would you? Nobody would. If it were a deer, would your decision be different? In the poem “Traveling Through The Dark” by William Stafford, the speaker has this hard decision to make. Does he save the deer, or kill it off? The speaker’s actions in the poem may appear humane at first, but he made the wrong decision by pushing the dead pregnant doe over the cliff, because he was condoning irresponsible human behavior and the unborn fawn was still viable. First, the speaker was condoning irresponsible human behavior. While
…show more content…
When the speaker got out of the car, he just thought that he was going to drag her off and continue on his journey. When he touched the doe, however, he noticed that “her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting, alive.”The word “waiting” explains to the reader that the doe is self aware. She knows that someone is there and wants to come out. The fawn just needs a little help and it would be fine. The word “warm” also implies that there is still some life inside of the doe’s belly. If the fawn were dead along with the doe, then her belly would be cold. The speaker states, “Beside that mountain road I hesitated.” His conscience is telling him that the fawn can live, but he does not want to save it. The speaker could’ve taken more time to think about this situation. It would only take him about 5 minutes to remove the carcass from the road and call for help. While the speaker is still in the process of making his decision he claims, “around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.” This demonstrates that mother nature was pressuring him to make a decision and all the animals stopped what they were doing to see what the speaker would do. This could mean that the speaker was going to feel ashamed for his actions. That he might not of wanted anyone to know what he was about to
When the speaker got out of the car, he just thought that he was going to drag her off and continue on his journey. When he touched the doe, however, he noticed that “her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting, alive.”The word “waiting” explains to the reader that the doe is self aware. She knows that someone is there and wants to come out. The fawn just needs a little help and it would be fine. The word “warm” also implies that there is still some life inside of the doe’s belly. If the fawn were dead along with the doe, then her belly would be cold. The speaker states, “Beside that mountain road I hesitated.” His conscience is telling him that the fawn can live, but he does not want to save it. The speaker could’ve taken more time to think about this situation. It would only take him about 5 minutes to remove the carcass from the road and call for help. While the speaker is still in the process of making his decision he claims, “around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.” This demonstrates that mother nature was pressuring him to make a decision and all the animals stopped what they were doing to see what the speaker would do. This could mean that the speaker was going to feel ashamed for his actions. That he might not of wanted anyone to know what he was about to