After reading W.S. Merwin’s “Unchopping a Tree”, the most devout Christian may stop and pause before taking an axe to an intricately perfect tree, to use it as a temporary giant ornament. But far more than the once a year ritual of picking out and chopping down the perfect Christmas tree or the chopping down of trees for winter fire wood, it is the tragic deforestation for profit and the destruction of animal habitat that the author is drawing our attention to. Merwin begins his story using the matter of fact voice of a foreman at a work site. His directions sound as though he is reading from an instruction manual on the steps required to unchop a tree. Between the steps of technical instruction, he
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The first step is to gather all the broken components and reattach them. Doing this task in one’s mind provokes thoughts about the interconnection of the pieces, each necessary for the tree’s existence and ability to provide food, shelter, and oxygen to animals. Insects, rodents, and animals affected by the fallen tree lead to the imagining of creatures unable to escape having been wounded or killed as apposed to the ones that just leave. According to our foreman, the reason the animals leave while we try to re-erect the tree is they know they are not needed or wanted. “They have learned, with time. This is men’s work.” (Ch. 1) Why would animals think humans should have any more regard for them when unchopping a tree than when chopping them down? Using imagery and leaving gaps to be filled in by the reader’s imagination, Mewin succeeds at opening our eyes to the fact that we have become desensitized to our nonstop destruction of nature. He exposes mans choice to put aside knowledge that all life on earth is interdependent, to instead, destroy plant and animal species for profit. In his story, Merwin pays homage to all creatures by elevating their status of importance and grandeur giving their groups names such as “The universe of ants, the empire of mice, … a local tribe of squirrels.” (Ch.1) He uses the spider’s web and the living bond of a leaf (Ch. 1) as
The first step is to gather all the broken components and reattach them. Doing this task in one’s mind provokes thoughts about the interconnection of the pieces, each necessary for the tree’s existence and ability to provide food, shelter, and oxygen to animals. Insects, rodents, and animals affected by the fallen tree lead to the imagining of creatures unable to escape having been wounded or killed as apposed to the ones that just leave. According to our foreman, the reason the animals leave while we try to re-erect the tree is they know they are not needed or wanted. “They have learned, with time. This is men’s work.” (Ch. 1) Why would animals think humans should have any more regard for them when unchopping a tree than when chopping them down? Using imagery and leaving gaps to be filled in by the reader’s imagination, Mewin succeeds at opening our eyes to the fact that we have become desensitized to our nonstop destruction of nature. He exposes mans choice to put aside knowledge that all life on earth is interdependent, to instead, destroy plant and animal species for profit. In his story, Merwin pays homage to all creatures by elevating their status of importance and grandeur giving their groups names such as “The universe of ants, the empire of mice, … a local tribe of squirrels.” (Ch.1) He uses the spider’s web and the living bond of a leaf (Ch. 1) as