he deer and her unborn fawn. The narrator thinks “hard for us all” and proceeds with the task he had committed to since the beginning. He pushes the deer and her unborn fawn over the edge into the river. There is much more to this poem than its literal story. The title, along with the story itself, suggests man’s overlook for nature. People seem to travel through oblivious to the consequences of their actions. The driver who killed the deer is an example of this theme. He was also traveling through the dark, as the deer was a “recent killing.” The fact that he left it in the middle of the road, with no further thought for it or anyone else behind him, implies his dark nature. The main theme of the poem however, is the sadness and misfortune that accompanies everyone’s journey through life. The Wilson River Road, in which the events of the poem take place, is symbolic of the road of life that we all travel upon. The darkness and the setting of the poem point to the isolation and uncertainty that we experience when dealing with life’s misfortunes. Many people feel as confused as the narrator as he was “stumbling back of the car” in his attempt to do the right thing. Unfortunately, many situations we must face in life are like this. People are not always around to help us through hard times. As described in the poem though, death is a certainty that we cannot change, and therefore should not frighten us from our path. Like the narrator’s car staring toward the road, anxious about moving on, we all are eager to put these events behind us and continue on with life. This last aspect is symbolized by the river in the poem that runs adjacent to the road. As we push life’s difficulties off to the side, they fall into this symbolic river like the deer and are swept farther and farther away from us by the current of time, allowing us to continue on our way with the difficulties behi...
