«The Wedge-tailed eagle», G.Dutton. Analysis by A. Romanov
The text under interpretation belongs to the pen of the prominent Australian author and historian - Geoffrey Dutton. During his career, Dutton wrote over 200 books, including poetry, fiction, biographies, critical essays etc. The episode under analysis is taken out from a short story «The wedge-tailed eagle» which contains a very deep social and psychological message and the subject of which is unfortunately drawn from life.
In the story which begins so peacefully and signifies no threaten the author exposes the evils of the whole society and in two pilots reveals all cruelty that can only exist in our world. Geoffrey Dutton brings to the light one day from the life of these pilots and depicts the event that makes the reader cry – the killing of one of the most gorgeous and powerful bird - wedge-tailed eagle. The main idea of the story is to demonstrate people`s shallowness, cruelty and a constant desire to satisfy their wishes no matter how high the price for it is. If a person like one of these two pilots wants something nothing would be able to stop him, even if the desire is unmoral and sinful and even if it ends with death of creatures that can`t protect itself against our savageness and violence.
The tone of the text is different at the beginning of the extract and at the end of it. Firstly we are completely plunged in the elevated atmosphere, where in small details the depiction of sky and nature is magnificent. Epithets (cloudless mourning, cool rushing sense of elation and freedom , scrubby range), simile (as clean as a gun-barrel, like the eagle) , personification (the sun hit them), and the whole choice of lexis and expressive means on the lexical level of stylistic analysis supported by such syntactical stylistic device as polysyndeton of the conjunction and long sentences depict a great world of nature where a man is only a guest. Everything in this world lives according to its laws and nobody should break them. Animals and the whole nature know how to live and if some creature is fool or weak it dies (like the sheep struck in the wet mud) and it is normal, because it is a law of nature.
Nevertheless this simile (like the sheep struck in the wet mud) and some other stylistic devices on the four level of stylistic analysis such as epithets (wet mud, drying dams), the choice of lexis (conquer, perish, vigilance – words of elevated style), separated by such graphical means as commas and semicolon and alliteration of sounds [t] [ch] , [r] and [d] (watcher, country, matched, in which, riches; from, secrets, manner, drying dams etc) serve to make the atmosphere more tense. Something hostile or at least warlike appears on the surface of things and the reader feels this sudden change of tone. The words helmet and eagle are also notable there. They symbolize war and freedom and it is probably the war between nature and people, which never stops. Man ruins all beautiful things created by nature and in response it tries to defend itself and to pay people in its own coin.
This idea about the struggle between people and nature runs through the whole text and we should come back to it a bit later. The story is written in the 3d person, which helps the author to watch all the events from somewhere below. He leaves it to the reader to judge the characters and doesn`t impose his opinion to us, but indirectly he characterizes the pilots as people who have no right to live in such a magnificent world of nature. They are so narrow-minded, violent and cruel that they even don`t have a right to have names. This may be the 1st reason why the author doesn`t give the characters names. And the 2nd cause is that generalization is on the surface of things. If there any sense to name somebody if this case of cruelty is not the only one of its kind? Everyday people kill animals, cut woods, damage nature and remain unpunished for it. They are so arrogant and selfish that can`t see anything that is better than they are, that is why they MUST ruin it. People can`t appreciate properly what a great chance they have – to live in such a beautiful world and it characterizes all of them as the most stupid creatures that can only exist. At the same time we call ourselves rational beings and we are proud of it.
The opening sentences of the 1st paragraph come out as the exposition of the story, the end of the 1st paragraph is rising action, because here the reader begins to feel tension which signifies something horrible, and the 2nd paragraph is the key-point where the tense atmosphere achieves its acme and the climax takes place. (It flashed, wings still gloriously outstretched, straight into the right-hand end of the upper main-plane of the aircraft, exactly where the metal slot curves across the wood and fabric). A composite sentence consisting of some short ones which are separated from each other by commas turns out to be a crucial point not only in the life of the eagle, but also in the life of these two pilots. What is notable here is that the sentence really looks more like a flash of light – everything is so sudden and unexpectedly, that no one can believe that the evil intension of the pilots could become true. In the opening sentence of the 2nd paragraph the author employs polysyndeton (The eagle heard and saw, and flicked over to where, before, safety had always been emptily waiting for it) and it conveys the dynamic of the action. But the 2nd sentence doesn’t have any conjunctions and this change of the types of sentences makes the narration more tragic and support the emotional impact of the paragraph. This emotional coloring and the effect of unexpectedness is also achieved due to the use of grammar means: past perfect tense instead of past simple (safety had always been waiting…). To strengthen this effect even more the author resorts to alliteration of sounds [t], [p] and [s] which convey the whole horrible picture of what has happened (flashed, outstretched, straight into the right-hand end, upper, plain etc) and on the phonetical level show the reaction to this. The verbs of action are employed to demonstrate the unexpectedness and the rapidity of the moment (snapped away and fluttered down, plunged and slewed). The eagle stops to be an obstacle for the pilots and becomes a «heavy box of bone» and it strikes the reader most of all. To be honest I could not help crying at this episode because we realize that because of a stupid principle of stupid people a beautiful and glorious creature dies. They have achieved what they wanted and the eagle would not more irritate them but what is next? Was it worth of it? Certainly, not. The metaphor heavy box of bones in the contrast to the epithet gloriously stresses that in one minute a man can ruin something very beautiful and magnificent and turn it into something lifeless. Nature doesn`t have such an opportunity to take revenge on people for all their cruelty and senseless negative actions towards it that is why people suppose themselves to be the best creatures on the earth – the best and the most reasonable. But how can we call a man reasonable if he does such terrible things without any reflection. The eagle in this text is a symbol of all live creatures – gorgeous, beautiful and marvelous who must live on this planet but people can`t just live with nature in peace, they are always in need of a war and it`s the most terrible thing that can only exist.
The sentence «The moment of skill and danger was past, and the dead body before them proclaimed their victory» sounds very revealing and exposing and could be the denouement of the story. It reminds me the end of a fairytale where the good always wins over the bad. The choice of lexis of elevated style (proclaimed, victory) intensifies the idea that something VERY important took place. Important, but not positive. This sentence doesn`t demonstrate the strength and power of the pilots but on the other hand shows ALL cruelty of the world. The characters are depicted as if they have killed the evil of the universe, but it is just an eagle – a bird who lived its life and didn`t impede anyone. This paradox reveals the author`s attitude to these pilots specifically and to such people in general. The epithet piteous at the same time is employed to intensify the idea of the author`s sympathy with nature.
Though the eagle is dead it doesn’t look beaten and on the contrary looks more respectable than its killers. And this fact is supported by epithets glistening and uncrushed beak on the lexical level and parallel constructions and asyndeton on the syntactical level (the beak glistening and uncrushed, the ribbed feet and talons clenched together). Talons clenched together is also a symbol of war that proves that it is not over. It is like a fist waiting for revenge.
I`d like to say that this story is one of the most tragic and impressive stories that I have ever read. It makes us think over our lives and behavior and to understand whether we behave morally or not. The problem of the relationships between people and nature is an evergreen problem that can`t be solved by anybody except us. Probably nature right now doesn`t have an opportunity to revenge upon us for all peoples sins and unmoral actions, but it has already began with floods, cyclones, earthquakes and so on and now it is just a precaution, but if people don`t stop to behave like savages they would regret for that some day.