Jordan Lee

11/6/19

Global Issue Connection

The Moment, a poem within Atwood’s novel, is about two conflicting views of the

sense of accomplishment. There are two speakers, a human being and the environment.

Although the reader does not know for sure that the other speaker is the environment,

this assumption can be made through the way Atwood describes the actions of the

human speaker’s surroundings. Because there is a conflicting view between the human

and environment, this poem speaks to environmental global issues.

This poem can be interpreted as a message from the environment to the human

about entitlement. Since the poem only consists of three stanzas, it is clear in each who

is speaking. The final stanza makes the message clear. The environment “never belonged

to you [the human].” Instead, it is the other way around. It is the environment which

made all human accomplishments possible. However, from the first stanza, the reader

can see that in most cases, humans believe that it is because of their efforts, that

everything around them exists.

The second stanza shows the separation between the human and the

environment. The reader can get a sense that the environment is letting go of the

human, almost as if the environment was the human’s life support. The fact that “the air

moves back from you like a wave,” supports this feeling. The environment has always

been there to support the human, however, they have come to a moment where this can

be no more. The human has gotten so caught up in their accomplishments that they

have begun to take things for granted.

 In today’s society, this is a common theme between people and their

environment. People seem to have forgotten that the environment is the reason for their

being. Global issues such as deforestation, is an example of humans taking advantage of

the environment. People that continue to cut down forests don’t realize that one day

there may not be any left to provide for them. They have become accustomed to the

environment being there to support them, but don’t realize that one day this may not be

the case. Through the poem, Atwood shows the moment when this realization happens.

Readers may even consider this poem to be a warning to society. The message being that

people should not take what they have for granted and call their accomplishments their

own. There are many other factors that contributed to get society to where it is today.

Society should not want to see The Moment when these supporting factors, such as the

environment, no longer want to support society.