Thursday 16 March 2017

What's the author's implied claim on the subject of knowledge and individual power in "The Call of the Wild" by Snyder?

Interpretations of this question will vary from reader to reader, but here are my own observations.

On the subject of knowledge, the poem seems to imply that a lack of knowledge is what is destroying nature, and therefore destroying the ability for humans to have a meaningful relationship with nature (and perhaps even our ability to understand each other and ourselves with true insight).


The first section of the poem describes the old man who lies awake at night, listening to the sounds of the coyotes, thinking about how he’ll call the government trappers out soon to get rid of the animals. Even though this eighty-year-old man knows that his sons enjoy the “music” of the coyotes, he’s still going to have people come out to trap and kill them! The old man’s ignorance of the coyote’s value, his lack of knowledge and his lack of a relationship with the coyotes as a symbol of nature—all this combines to literally kill the coyotes.


In the second section, look at how the “ex acid-heads” want to be all sensitive and appreciative of nature (like how they give up meat) and yet they’re too ignorant to realize that they’re not helping at all. Thinking that trees are worthless because they’re “full of bugs,” they sell them to a logger, who destroys them. Again, these “ex acid-heads” lack knowledge of nature and therefore harm it, killing the trees just like the old man would have the coyotes killed.


Now move to the third section of the poem, where the government is bombing everything, destroying everything in nature from birds to trees to deer, all because the government stupidly believes that nature is un-American. With no knowledge of nature’s indifference to political and social ideals, the government obliterates nature and destroys any chance it had of creating a meaningful relationship with it.


The poem closes with the assertion that Coyote (a symbol of both nature and of our own response to the call of the wild) is NOT forever inside you; you’ve killed it with your ignorance. Therefore, the poem presents a lack of knowledge as a frightening source of destruction.



On the subject of individual power, the poem may imply that individual power is not just a bewildering source of chaos but also at total odds with the power of nature.


The old man in the first section of the story holds so much power. With a phone call, he’ll summon trappers. The trappers will kill the coyotes.


And the “ex acid-heads” from the second section hold so much power: they “own” the trees, sell them off, and let them be destroyed.


Finally, the government from the third section of the poem holds so much power that they’ve got bombs and poisons, and they use them willy-nilly while hovering above the ground in powerful planes as if their technology has lifted them to a morally or intellectually higher ground—it hasn’t.


All these individuals hold incredible power and wield it stupidly, which is why I’ll suggest that the poem seems to be juxtaposing the quiet, subtle power of nature and the cacophonous, violent power of individuals, with the conclusion being that latter is not just damaging but catastrophic to the former.

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