The Theme Of Greed In Birds Of Prey And Man Eats World

The artistic outlooks of both McKay and Jackson portray power and greed. The theme that both the poem and painting support is: too much power and greed will always lead to destruction. In McKay’s poem, “Birds of Prey”, the birds represent greed and their victims represent destruction. Similarly, in Jackson’s painting, “Man Eats World”, the man eating the earth represents power and the earth itself represents destruction. What is more, symbolism plays a colossal role in both the painting and poem as well. From the late 1920s to the middle 1940s, Joseph Stalin reigned the Soviet Union. In the painting by Jackson, Stalin embodies the man eating earth and all of his victims embody the earth itself. In his early years, Stalin was not his name …show more content…
Stalin, again, embodied the man in Jackson’s painting by trying to rule his own kind. That execution, though, led to famine all over the Soviet Union and killed millions. The man in the painting and Stalin are alike in that they represent the government that is greedy for power. That power turned to destruction of people just as Stalin had done. In the poem that McKay wrote, survival of the fittest is epitomized. Those animals that have the benefit of flying are the ones that will win in the fight for survival. McKay describes the fight between predator birds and their prey. From the statement above, it is safe to infer that the birds won the battle. The birds had the power over the other species and used it in the foulest way possible. In the words of Mwai Kibaki, “Leadership is a privilege to better the lives of others. It is not an opportunity to satisfy personal greed.” Too much power and greed will always lead to destruction but if a person with power used it to better the lives of those below him, earth would be a better place to