Traveling Through The Dark

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The Relationship between Life and “Traveling through the Dark” In his poem, “Traveling through the Dark,” William Stafford tells of a man that is faced with a difficult decision. The man is traveling a dark, narrow road and comes upon a deer that was recently killed. His thoughts are immediately that “It is usually best to roll them into the canyon” (line 3). After approaching the deer, he quickly realizes that she is pregnant. The fawn is still alive. The narrator is now faced with the difficult decision of what to do. Does he spare the unborn fawn of death not knowing what the outcome will be, or does he choose to push it over the edge in order to prevent other motorists from “swerving” (lines 4 and 17)? In the end, he chooses to push the deer over the canyon into the river. His choice was to spare fellow motorists. After analyzing the poem, I began to relate Stafford’s poem to that of the path of life. Stafford uses metaphors, symbolism, and personification to point to the decisions we are faced with and the consequences that come with those decisions. In this particular poem, the consequence is death, whether it is the death of the fawn or the possible death of a future motorist. One of the first things that stood out to me when looking at the poem was how metaphorical the poem is to life’s path. The title “Traveling through the Dark,” comes across to me as a metaphor of the long dark road of life that is often filled with difficulty and tough decisions. As one grows older, they are forced to start making decisions for themselves. They have very little experience with decision making, because their parents have always made major decisions for them. However, there comes a day that one must take control and independently make decision for themselves. They face consequences no matter their choice, but that is just part of life. I can relate to

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