"Bright Ideas"

By looking solely at the title of the poem, I insinuated that the author would use the life and death of a toad to portray his message to the reader. In this poem the writer has accidently struck a toad with his mower and has made it evident to the reader that he is remorseful for his actions. This “toad” is not the most beautiful looking creature as its leg is described as being “chewed and clipped”. In spite of how the toad looks, a love for nature is recognized within the writer. On the verge of death this writer doesn’t kill the toad nor throw it aside, but treats it with delicacy and care. The tone of the passage shifts when the toad actually does die which is significant because it lived a horrific life but experienced a passionate and beautiful death.

                I noticed that the physical structure of the poem is in the shape of a toad. I also recognized that Wilbur uses death to express also life. Wilbur uses imagery to his advantage as the setting takes place assumingly in the backyard of the writer’s home. The imagery of nature in a backyard and the life of this toad is a microcosm for life and how you should manage death. Through the author’s use of syntax I grasped from this poem that death can be viewed in a different perspective, as not a time of grief or despair but of triumph and reflection of life.

In order to properly analyze and understand this story, it is first essential to understand the background of the author. Nathaniel Hawthorne was a Puritan so many of his works reflected his beliefs about man and their sinful nature.　In this short story Goodman Brown represents man, and the other two important figures are　his wife “Faith”　and the man identified as the devil. These two figures are important as they represent the will that man has to choose either good or evil, God or Satan. While on the road Goodman Brown is influenced by this man as sees visions which causes him to lose his “faith”. The major theme I grasped from this poem is how man　can be affected by negative moral influences. Hawthorne showed through this allegory a man with weak faith and how he failed in resisting the devil. Also this message can also be relative to those who don’t relate to the religious aspect of this message. It shows also how people in generally can be affected by negative moral influence and can　lose track of their goals, beliefs, and or morals etc.

This story connects with Macbeth because of the negative influences that begin to plague him which include the witches and also his wife. Macbeth seems as if he is a good person and truly wants to do good, as he contemplates a couple of times to not go through with the murder of Duncan. But like Goodman Brown he let others influence him on making a decision instead of making a positive moral decision on his own.

In a reader’s standpoint this short story was highly entertaining and engaging as it was a seemingly realistic situation. This young couple’s relationship was comical due to the fact that they have only been married for a few weeks. Also they are realizing that living together means that they have to be able to deal with one another. The idea that drives this story is the robbery of a bakery the husband commits in his past, which his wife believes has a correlation to their current situation. I believe this was a clever technique in using hunger to draw in the reader as almost everyone has been in a “hunger” predicament one way or another. Also the metaphor of him being a boat at sea can also be used to grasp a better understanding of the overall message.

It seems as if their personalities contradicted from the beginning to the end of the story. As the husband was telling his story of the robbery, the reader formed a negative opinion of him. As the story progresses inevitably we find that the husband does not have an aggressive nature as this trait is found more so in the wife. The main two repeated words that gives incite to the theme include “boat” and “water”, as the boat represents the husband and the water the wife. In reference to the metaphor, as the water was disrupted so was their relationship. A shift at the end is seen as the husband submits to his wife’s suggestion of the robbery, there was no more disruption found in the sea. The theme of this passage shows that with any relationship, especially marriage, there has to be compromise in order for it to successful.

I want to welcome you to the page of Ryan Bright, better known as “Bright Ideas”. Here you can express your thoughts, opinions, and emotions of literature. We can help each other have a better understanding of concepts but just be willing to help yourself. By all means be creative and let your mind wonder