In the poem Woodchucks, written by Maxine Kumin, the speaker talks about the woodchucks inhabiting her backyard and how she wants them gone. The excitement of killing demonstrates the overall tone of the poem reveals the theme of how little it takes to turn a person evil.
In the beginning of the poem, the tone describes her annoyance toward the woodchucks that inhabit her backyard. The speaker uses “a knockout bomb” because it seems “merciful, quick at the bone” (2-3). Connotatively “merciful” demonstrates the speaker humanity. Although she tried to do the humane way of killing, the woodchucks “had a sub-sub-basement out of range” (6). By outmaneuvering the speaker, the “woodchucks” escaped living another day. “Next morning they turned up again, no worse” (7) Where is the explanation????. To make matters worse for themselves the woodchucks “brought down the marigolds” and “took over the vegetable patch”(10-11). This really seems to aggravate the speaker because the woodchucks took “food from our mouths”. Although woodchucks seem as a small reason to turn murderous, this translates into the theme of the poem. The speaker tries to justify her killings by making the creatures seem murderous. The woodchucks destroyed her garden by “nipping the broccoli shoots, beheading the carrots” …show more content…
The “wily” woodchuck is skillful enough to avoid being killed by the speaker (21). This causes the speaker to become incredibly determined to find him. She demonstrates this when she says, “I dream/ I sight along the barrel in my sleep” (23-24). In her “dream”, the speaker wants to kill the final woodchuck; Just like she wants to do consciously. The speaker feels “If only they’d all consented to die unseen/ gassed underground the quiet Nazi way” (25-26). It’s almost as if she wished they died the way she intended to so she wouldn't change into the killer she has now become. Though in another way she compares herself to