Self-Preservation and Justifiable Violence in Maxine Kumin's Essay

Self-Preservation and Justifiable Violence in Maxine Kumin's Woodchucks - Essay Example More than just a mere 30-line poem, Maxine Kumin’s â€Å"Woodchucks† is a demonstration of the idea that threats to self-preservation causes a good man to resort to evil and violence in order to survive. In Kumin’s poem, the narrator is a good man who simply acts according to reason when he decides to have the woodchucks gassed. He resorts to â€Å"gassing the woodchucks† with help from a company he calls the â€Å"Feed and Grain Exchange† (Kumin, 2012, 1-2). Although this seems like a cruel act that alludes to the Nazi way of gassing prisoners during the Second World War, the narrator is simply defending his right to his vegetable garden, which is obviously his property. The exercise of this right of ownership must necessarily override the idea of kindness and must therefore naturally prompt him to defend his own property at any cost, even if this would mean the death of those who seek to take it away from him. In the poem, the woodchucks are the a nimals that destroy his garden by â€Å"nipping the broccoli shoots [and] beheading the carrots† (11-12). The cruel imagery that uses the word â€Å"beheading† emphasizes the idea that these small creatures are actually cruel and that their actions lead to the unjust and cruel execution of the owner’s vegetables. ... After the failure of the gassing because the woodchucks have hidden in their â€Å"sub-sub-basement,† the narrator does not even say that he would do something to eventually kill these animals. The narrator’s biggest decision – the decision to exterminate all of them by shooting at them – has simply been prompted by the idea that â€Å"next morning [the woodchucks] turned up again† (7). The lines that follow seem to demonstrate their very fast destruction of the vegetable patch and an equally speedy consumption of the plants in it from the marigold to the broccoli to the carrots. When the narrator picks up his .22 rifle, he has simply reacted to the idea that if he does not do anything, his whole vegetable garden would be wiped out by the woodchucks in no time. The narrator recognizes the reasonableness of his decision when he says that it is only â€Å"righteously thrilling† for him to defend his property from the woodchucks that want to des troy it (13). He also emphasizes his â€Å"Darwinian pieties for killing† the woodchucks, which means that what he is doing is only a matter of survival and something which is akin to shooting someone who is also just about to shoot him too. The narrator feels guilty but this is a proof not of his evil but of his compassion. As the narrator begins shooting at the woodchucks, he assumes they are a family complete with the â€Å"littlest† woodchuck, the mother, two baby woodchucks, and an old one (17-25). His guilt is evident in his recognition of their roles in the family. Otherwise, he would simply regard each one of them as a mere woodchuck that deserves to be killed. The fact that these animals, no matter how much damage they have caused him, are still also baby, mother and old fellow, somehow

Professional Communication Phase 5 DB Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Professional Communication Phase 5 DB - Essay Example vice based model, company executives have decided to use a slightly different business model for the release of SmartFit 2.0 which is tailored toward the general membership of the partner fitness club. SmartFit 2.0 also delivered via a wireless device, will bring a suite of entertainment features to the user in addition to the performance tracking. Users of SmartFit 2.0 will be able to listen to streaming music from the Universal Music catalog, audio books, and pre-recorded fitness routines created by the leading Personal Trainers in North America. At the release of the client version, the beta testers (a focus group of selected clients at a partner facility) suggested to offer a three-month free promotion for all new signed up members to any partner facility as a part of our marketing strategy. New members would thereby benefit of the promotion for ninety days followed by an increase in membership fees to reflect the inclusion of SmartFit 2.0 in the monthly membership fee. For current members willing to upgrade to this new level of membership, we would offer one month free and a 10 percent discount on the new membership fee for a period of twelve months. Our company executives believe that in offering this promotion, we are positioning SmartFit 2.0 to be as much of a success as the Personal training version. The pricing strategy has been studied carefully during the development of the platform, and extensively compared with similar client applications in the local and national market. For answering to the diverse demographics that exits at fitness facilities, our managers decided on using a service pricing model, as well as a per-use model. The service fee model described earlier is designed for the first adopters of the technology and those who can benefit from it by becoming a new member at a partner facility. The per-use service model is made to allow people who may decide to use the wireless features of SmartFit 2.0 in a less regular fashion. The