Wilbur’s speaker uses personification to make a child less frightened, and Collins’s uses humor to understate the severity of the topics that a teacher must teach his young class about. In “A Barred Owl,” a young child wakes up in the middle of the night due to the hoots of an owl, which frighten her. The speaker attempts to reassure the girl that the owl is friendly, and its calls resembling the word “who” are really just the owl asking the girl “Who cooks for you?” (6). By making the owl seem like an inquisitive person, the speaker manages to calm the girl and let her sleep again. Because she now thinks of the owl as human-like in behavior, the girl is unable to dream of the owl catching, killing, eating its prey, which would simply frighten her. The speaker uses personification to conceal the harsh realities of predator and prey from the child, so that she may rest peacefully, even as the predatory owl hunts outside her window. In “The History Teacher,” the speaker addresses the teaching method of one man. Forced to teach his young students about many harsh time periods and tragic events, he uses humor to understate the harshness and tragicness. For example, instead of telling the children about the difficult conditions of the Ice Age, he tells them it was a period “when everyone had to wear sweaters” (4), and instead of telling them that the War of the Roses was fought by two rival families over the English throne, he tells them that it “took place in a garden” (11). The teacher desperately wants to protect the innocence of his students, so he uses humor. By making his students laugh during the lessons, he can take away some of the cruel blows these lessons might leave on a young child’s mind.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
“A Barred Owl” and “The History Teacher”
“A Barred Owl” and “The History Teacher”
The speakers in “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur and “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins both attempt to keep the harsh realities of life from the children that surround them by using personification in Wilbur’s poem and humor in Collins’s.
Wilbur’s speaker uses personification to make a child less frightened, and Collins’s uses humor to understate the severity of the topics that a teacher must teach his young class about. In “A Barred Owl,” a young child wakes up in the middle of the night due to the hoots of an owl, which frighten her. The speaker attempts to reassure the girl that the owl is friendly, and its calls resembling the word “who” are really just the owl asking the girl “Who cooks for you?” (6). By making the owl seem like an inquisitive person, the speaker manages to calm the girl and let her sleep again. Because she now thinks of the owl as human-like in behavior, the girl is unable to dream of the owl catching, killing, eating its prey, which would simply frighten her. The speaker uses personification to conceal the harsh realities of predator and prey from the child, so that she may rest peacefully, even as the predatory owl hunts outside her window. In “The History Teacher,” the speaker addresses the teaching method of one man. Forced to teach his young students about many harsh time periods and tragic events, he uses humor to understate the harshness and tragicness. For example, instead of telling the children about the difficult conditions of the Ice Age, he tells them it was a period “when everyone had to wear sweaters” (4), and instead of telling them that the War of the Roses was fought by two rival families over the English throne, he tells them that it “took place in a garden” (11). The teacher desperately wants to protect the innocence of his students, so he uses humor. By making his students laugh during the lessons, he can take away some of the cruel blows these lessons might leave on a young child’s mind.
Wilbur’s speaker uses personification to make a child less frightened, and Collins’s uses humor to understate the severity of the topics that a teacher must teach his young class about. In “A Barred Owl,” a young child wakes up in the middle of the night due to the hoots of an owl, which frighten her. The speaker attempts to reassure the girl that the owl is friendly, and its calls resembling the word “who” are really just the owl asking the girl “Who cooks for you?” (6). By making the owl seem like an inquisitive person, the speaker manages to calm the girl and let her sleep again. Because she now thinks of the owl as human-like in behavior, the girl is unable to dream of the owl catching, killing, eating its prey, which would simply frighten her. The speaker uses personification to conceal the harsh realities of predator and prey from the child, so that she may rest peacefully, even as the predatory owl hunts outside her window. In “The History Teacher,” the speaker addresses the teaching method of one man. Forced to teach his young students about many harsh time periods and tragic events, he uses humor to understate the harshness and tragicness. For example, instead of telling the children about the difficult conditions of the Ice Age, he tells them it was a period “when everyone had to wear sweaters” (4), and instead of telling them that the War of the Roses was fought by two rival families over the English throne, he tells them that it “took place in a garden” (11). The teacher desperately wants to protect the innocence of his students, so he uses humor. By making his students laugh during the lessons, he can take away some of the cruel blows these lessons might leave on a young child’s mind.
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