In the poem “Woodchucks” by Maxine Kumin, how does the speaker strengthen a sense that everybody has a murderous intent deep inside? Throughout the essay, you will see that Kumin introduces the speaker as a frustrated farmer trying to get rid of a problem she is going through. The speaker tries to kill the woodchuck by successfully gassing them. The speaker is frustrated and angry furthermore because his solution is not working in order to protect his garden. Down the line in the poem the farmer finds another means on how to kill the woodchucks and feel like this is the only option to get rid of them, however, wants the woodchucks to not feel the pain. The speaker starts to accumulate hatred as his humanity drives away. Kumin is illustrating …show more content…
This has a correlation to everyone has a murderous intent deep inside. “I, a lapsed pacifist fallen from grace puffed with Darwinism pieties for killing now drew a bead on the little woodchuck’s face.” This shows that the speaker begins to fall from his humane side and the villain side started to come out. The uncontrollable lust for blood could not be stopped and it continued until he killed a plethora of woodchucks. Another example showing the author giving an atmosphere that everyone has a murderous intent deep down was the stanza “O one-two-three the murderer inside me rose up hard, the hawkeye killer came on stage forthwith.” When killing the woodchuck, it was solely to get it out of the garden, but however, when the author killed the mother woodchuck, her intentions became another ballgame. This quote shows that it is important and in correlation with the thesis because the speaker’s true feelings deep down came out. The author sets this atmosphere that everyone has an intent of killing deep down when the circumstances are right. The farmer started to show that side of him after killing the first woodchuck because he started to enjoy killing them and justified the killing because the woodchucks were bothering his