In Mary Oliver's poem, the Black Walnut Tree is a symbol of their family and generations of history. The speaker and the mother are confronted with a conflict between the literal and figurative meanings of the tree. The literal meaning begins at the beginning of the poem when the speaker and the mother decide whether to sell the tree. The next half will be the transition to a figurative meaning, where the tree is a symbol that represents a family legacy passed down through generations and all the hard work that their ancestors have done for their family to this day.
At the beginning of the first line, the speaker and the mother are in a financial situation. They have a very valuable tree in their backyard, and selling it to the lumberjack might solve their problem. Because the word “debating” in the first line does not explicitly mean that they are doing it to each other, but to themselves, since they are both giving ideas of what they should do. Details about the tree are
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Oliver uses the words “brighter” and “moves in our blood” in lines 16 to 17 to show that the tree represents ancestral work, treasured history, and heritage, a part of the family that continues to grow or plant that can be preserved as something of great value for future generations. Then, from lines 18 to 19 “sharp and quick as a trowel that wants us to dig and sow '' Oliver uses this simile to refer to the roots from which they emanated and the tree or other plants refer to the hard work that went into planting them. They understand that cutting down the walnut tree would ruin all the work of their ancestors and turn it all worthless. The imagery was used from lines 21 to 25 when the speaker had a dream associated with a generation who were growers and migrated to Bohemia. They filled a whole state of plants meaning that they contributed to