Lord of the Flies

Nature’s Wrath is Against Man

Nature can be a beautiful thing, the sun can shine on water reflecting the beautiful sun in the sky making a peaceful setting, but at the flick of a switch the world around you can change quickly like in hurricane Katrina, where everything was flooded and destroyed by the strength of Katrina. Nature can destroy everything around you, take lives and break anything it desires. In the poem “David” by Earl Birney, the poet wants to present as intensely as possible the symbolic aspect of his two characters in relation to certain themes. In this poem he discusses the values of life and death, the conflict between man and nature and the conflict between loyalty and guilt in man.

The values of life and death can be interpreted in many different ways by many different people. In Birney’s poem “David”, David accepts life and death when the right time comes, when he can no longer live free and be independent. It was his code to seek death. David cannot see himself being useful and a future cripple because he would be a burden to his family and to his friends. When David was faced with death, because he had fallen and broken his back, he was content with dying, but his friend Bob was not, because he had to push his friend over the cliff and put him to his death, which he didn’t want to do. He saw that his friend really wished to die and he came to terms with it and pushed him over, and fulfilled his wishes for death. After Bob killed David he had horrific memories about what he did and why, but he knew it was the right thing to do. David came to terms with his death because he did not want to live as a cripple because his life would not be worth living anymore. David just could not see himself living anymore in this way. Nature has won because David fell on a rock and it broke his back so he decided he did not want to live anymore.

David has a conflict between man and nature, and so does Bob. This is exemplified when the two of them found...