In the poem "Red Fox," Margaret Atwood examines the human life and actions as she compares the actions and life of the red fox to those of man. The struggles of living a life of need ar described through the description of a mother taking on bodily pain in order that her child may eat and Hansel and Gretel being dumped in the forest alone because of their parents' inability to care for them even in their hunger. The motif of hunger used througout the poem demonstrates how lack becomes the prominent force which drives people's actions to the point where the struggle for survival can sometimes lead to moral corruption.
Atwood uses strong imagery to demonstrate the struggle of survival. Hunger is the result of the lack of food or the lack of fullfillment of the food provided. Food is necessary for the continuation of life. The mother presented in the "Red Fox" has literally had the life sucked out of her as she attempts to give life to her child. The fox is known as a sly, sneaky animal who knows how to get what she wants. The fox has a "coat of an elegant scoundrel," sometimes using her beauty to take what does not belong to her. However, like the mother, the fox is using her body as a tool to meet a need.
In the second stanza Atwood says "she didn't get this smart for nothing." In life sometimes intelligence is used to make a gain even if it means someone else is slighted in the process. "Hunger corrupts" for when a need has to be met whether "virtious poverty" or a good suffering is experienced internally like the mother described in the poemor "trickster's eyes" like those of the fox ar used to scope out an evil means to get ahead, when struggle arrives people's reactions are sometimes those of the unexpected, corrupt.
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2 comments:
i agree with you in you are trying to say Atwood is trying to portray. she is saying that when it comes down to the nitty-gritty of life people would do anything to survive
I totally agree wit u ma. This poem is relavant to our society today. we often judge the desicion of parents that leave their kids out to the world. But what do we do 2 help the children who are left alone? And I think that is what atwood is asking thru this poem. We see mother's who do everything they can 4 their children but what happens when all a parent can do isn't enuff? THe lack of needs has currupted our society more than ever. But whose fault iz it for the lack that iz created... gov't, economy, or oneself? Idk... its jus a thought. lol
<3 Shoji
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