Uncle's First Rabbit
Trapped Within Human beings without all the materialistic “necessities” are just animals that have hidden their true natures deep within and the true beast only comes out when needed to survive. There is no opportunity escaping who you really are internally, & throughout Lorna Dee Cervantes’ poem Uncle’s First Rabbit she haunts her audience with the harsh reality that we can’t out run who we truly are. Violence is something we were exposed to since we were young kids -- seeing it on television, hearing about it on the radio, etc. Due to such high exposure, we all had different reactions towards it. “…He brought it [the rabbit] home with tears streaming down his blood soaked jacket…he cried all night and the week after.” In that quote Cervantes shows how the boy is reacting towards the act of violence he just committed, clearly in a negative manner. The boy then begins being revealing whom in actuality he is, and how much killing the rabbit affected him gradually throughout the poem. After understanding his nature he desires to break away from it all, somehow finding his own personal inner peace where he isn’t forced to look back on that horrific moment ever again. The boy’s longing for escape is unmistakably evident from the beginning of the poem with such lines as “He dreamed of running, shouldering the rifle to town, selling it, and taking the next train out.” Even though his desire is to leave he later discovers you can’t abandon who you are. The line “Fifty years have passed and…” is repeated twice & the reason being is just because time passes doesn’t mean your character will alter. It is apart of who you are as a whole. Therefore the boy is stuck to drown in his own ways. He forces himself to remember scenes throughout his life that have left many memories, which left him scarred. Making himself suffer while reliving each traumatizing remembrance he has gone through. Thinking about something usually leads to another thought, then another & another and
Cited: Cervantes, Lorna Dee. Uncle’s First Rabbit. 1982