McCoy's Life Journey曉風

Journal on “Traveling Through the Dark’’ By William Stafford
Before I read the poem, I look the title “Traveling through the Dark’’. I deliberate who travels through the dark and then what happened to them. So I keep my curiosity and read the poem. In the first stanza of this poem, the speaker refers one day he finds a deer passed away when he drives his car on the narrow road in the dark. And the poet said people often think it is best way to push the dead body into the river for surviving. And the next stanza, the speaker refers his car can’t move and founds his car is tumbled by the doe also passed away who is pregnant, and he hauls it. In the third stanza of this poem, the speaker mentions he touch the dead doe’s body and finds it is warm. For the speaker’s view, her body is warm for her baby still waiting for his born. And the speaker considers he should push her dead body into the river or not. In the fourth stanza of this poem, the speaker mentions he looks the gas from the car become red. In the end of stanza, the speaker make a determination to push the doe’s dead body into the river for it may reduce more death and survive.
The theme of this poem is we may need to sacrifice something in order to survive our life. I think this way is very selfish, arrogant, and unnatural. In my own interpretation, I think the poet try to portray the relationship between men and animal, the relationship between technology and nature isn’t balanced: one has to be sacrificed for another survival in this poem. In my own interpretation, the animal as a victim, and the human being survived for sacrifice from animal. And in this poem, the narrow road may interpret as the passage of entering the Death; the animal may symbolize as the group of scapegoat but the human being may symbolizes as the group of surviving from animal’s sacrifice. I also found a line “It is usually best to roll them into the canyon: that road is narrow” may is sarcastic tone because I think push them to river isn’t best way. I found an ambiguous condition is the doe, recent killing has stiffened already. Why the doe die and become stiffen so fast? Also I found the paradoxical condition is the doe’s side was warm for her fawn lay there waiting. Why the dead doe may have two totally different temperatures in the same body? And why the fawn doesn’t die because the doe is dead now? Why it may still is alive on her mother’s body?