In The Bait by Eric Chock we read about a young boy who begins his weekly chores by going out to fish in hopes of catching a large bass. We do not know much about this young boy at first and how he feels other than that he has a goal in mind. The boy thinks how he will give this trophy fish to another in hopes of fooling them into thinking that they are accepting a precious gift. What the young boy doesn’t realize is that as his day goes on he will be filled with regret as he realizes that he is now in control of another human’s life. Eric Chock emphasizes the carelessness which with leaders or people with inherent power put into the means that they use to achieve their end. He does this with the suggestion of the title as well as the cultural …show more content…
“The Bait” gives us an idea that the book may be about fishing and the bait that is used to catch a fish. But in the deeper aspect it is in regards to treating something in a way to get something else which we will come to realize as the story goes on. Bait is something that is used to entice or attract something else whether it is in fishing or baiting someone or something. What we see in the poem is that the boy is using the bait in hopes of catching a large fish. The boy has no regards for the bait and its outcome because the boy only cares that he gets what he wants. Just from the suggestion of the title we understand that the boy is treating another’s life as it is nothing. Eric Chock writes “I’d just take the bright green thing, pluck it off its only stock, and give it away as if it were mine to give”. The boy just casts the bait out and he has no care for what happens to the bait because his only concern is himself. I think what Eric Chock is trying to tell us is how some people have no concern for others and the affects that they may have on others. This theme of power is reoccurring throughout the poem as we see again with someone in power not having concern for