In Maxine Kumin’s poem “Woodchucks,” the speaker’s killing of woodchucks seems to illustrate the murderer inside of her. Although she may not have the tendencies of a killer, the speaker clearly shows that the actions of a killer can arise from within. Throughout the poem she shows a progression from being an annoyed homeowner to that seeking elimination of woodchucks around her home and garden. Through this the murderer inside the speaker begins to rise until the woodchucks are eliminated.
The speaker’s first method of ridding her garden of woodchucks is one that is quick and painless with little violence and is at the low end of her murderous tendencies. She decides to use the underground tunnels that the woodchucks use against…show more content… In the poem she uses her own actions as a metaphor to the Holocaust; however when comparing the two, there seems to be more similarities between killing woodchucks and the Jewish people. The speaker, like some of the Nazi soldiers did not see themselves as murderers prior to circumstances that did not promote hurtful thoughts and actions. In both cases a singular event sparked the hatred of both the woodchucks and the Jewish people. The rise of murder within the speaker rose after her garden was destroyed whereas the hatred of the Jews rose after propaganda and government influences. Also As well as the taking of food in the woodchucks case and jobs in the Jews case. Both the Jews and the woodcuts were seens as no more than rodents and the use of cyanide to kill mass numbers was used. The speaker seems to justify her actions by saying “If only they’d all consented to die unseen gassed underground the quiet Nazi way (Kumin 29-30).” She essentially blames the woodchucks themselves for being shot as they did not die from the cyanide. By shooting the woodchuck she feels remorse as she is the direct reason the woodchucks are dead as she is the one who decides to pull the trigger of the .22. Had the rodents died underground from the cyanide, the speaker would not feel directly responsible for their
