Human Nature in Maxine Kumin's Woodchucks

A detailed Summary of Human Nature in Maxine Kumin's Woodchucks

Human Nature in Maxine Kumin's "Woodchucks"

Maxine's Kumin's "Woodchucks" is a literal description a sort of woodchuck hunt in her garden. Through further examination of her words, one can sense her suggestions about human nature. With her use of tone, the reader can observe a change in her demeanor from stanza to stanza. In the poem, the author is pestered by woodchucks that are eating and destroying her garden. At first, she attempts to kill them by purchasing cyanide gas. This attempt fails and the woodchucks continue to ruin her plants. She then resorts to shooting the woodchucks one by one with a rifle.

The first stanza sets the story for the reader. The poem jumps right into the scenario with the first line, "Gassing the woodchucks didn't turn out right." Kumin says the "knockout bomb" that she purchased was "featured as merciful, quick at the bone" (line 4). This implies that she hoped the gas would be a quick and easy solution to her woodchuck problem. The final line in the stanza indicates that the first attempt was a failure. Even though she was able to create an "airtight" seal on both exits of the underground tunnels, the gas was ineffective because the woodchucks "had a sub-sub basement out of range"

The final stanza describes the author's persistence as she aspires to kill the final woodchuck that "keeps me cocked and ready day after day after day" (line 25). Her use of repetition emphasizes her persistence. She is so obsessed with the last woodchuck that she even dreams of hunting him down, "I dream I sight along the barrel in my sleep" (line 28). The tone quickly changes through for the final two lines, "If only they'd all consented to die unseen gassed underground the quiet Nazi way." She refers to gassing, just as she did in the poem's very first line. It is almost as if she regrets killing them they way she did. Killing them with gas is easier for people to deal with, vs. killing each one individually in such a graphic fashion. A systematic killing, i.e. gassing, is a much easier way to eliminate and much less personal. This is another gesture about human nature. It is easier to cope with taking a life if you don't have to see the look at their face. Line 16 mentions that she draws a bead on the "littlest woodchucks face". The author has morphed from a "pacifist" to a killer, yet she wishes it hadn't come to that. She wishes she could have gassed the woodchucks and that would have been the end of it. Kumin is offering that it is human to have a mean streak within us, and perhaps we are not all evil because we have guilt.

(line 6). The author uses repetition of the word "sub" to emphasize how the woodchucks' den was deep enough to be out of the range of the gas. The tone in the first stanza is more neutral than anything else. It is a straight forward description of what is

Some common words found in the essay are:
Kumin's Woodchucks, human nature, stanza describes, kumin's woodchucks, righteously thrilling, carrots verb, source food, day day, tone stanza,

Approximate Word count = 1087
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English