Quinlan 1

Taiya Quinlan

Ms. Mckiddy

AP English Language

25 August 2020

Rhetorical Analysis of Owls by Mary Oliver

Nature and its patterns and existence are truly awing and wondrous. The concept that

everything is connected to the life and death of other beings is sometimes difficult to understand,

however, it is just a fact of living on the planet Earth. Relationships between animals and plant

life are often the focus of science and research on the natural world that surrounds us, however,

literature is able to depict human feelings and emotions that arise due to observations of nature in

a wide variety of environments. In a passage from Owls and Other Fantasies by Mary Oliver, an

American writer and poet, emphasizes her intriguing message that nature is complex and full of

contrasts by utilizing rhetorical tools such as anaphora and repeated use of questions, as well as

vivid imagery.

Mary Oliver uses devices like impactful imagery, in addition to anaphora and repetition

of questions to convey that nature is complex and has so many contrasts. When describing the

predatory nature of owls, specifically great horned owls, she states that they “are pure wild

hunters”, characterized as both “swift and merciless”, while retelling how she “found the

headless bodies of rabbits and bluejays, and known that it was the great horned owl who did

them in, … for the owl has an insatiable craving for brains”(Oliver 1). These grotesque images of

decapitated animals at the hands(or in this case, talons) of the owl, illustrate an aspect of nature
 Quinlan 2

that may spark terror in many people. Through the author’s use of visual and gustatory imagery,

it signifies that nature can be both be breathtaking and a reason to hold your breath in instances

that cause feelings of danger and vulnerability to what nature offers our world. Oliver also

recounts an experience she had of being in a field of red, white, and pink roses, with their sweet

smells and soft, luscious petals, and the feelings she had whilst in the presence of something as

simple as flowers, explaining, “I’m struck, I’m taken, I’m conquered, I’m washed into it”, into a

profound state of happiness, yet she shows her doubt in these positive feelings about what

surrounds her by snapping out of her relaxed, trusting mindset by asking both herself and those

reading her narrative insightful questions: “And is this not also terrible? Is it not also

frightening?”(Oliver 3). The use of anaphora highlights the importance of the fondness she had,

enjoying being immersed in a lovely field of flowers, and the beauty she witnessed and smelled

and touched and how it transcended the simplicity of as common of things like greenery, but the

use of questions also poses her contradictory feelings to what the pleasures of nature are, which

sees nature as more ominous and potentially harmful to oneself and other beings nearby. This

exhibits the importance of knowing that behind every delight, there is the possibility of danger,

and behind every danger, there is almost always something to view as delightful, and that sort of

concept truly justifies in general terms how different and perplexing principles of nature may

come across to the human race, especially those that are have contrast. From this, it is evident

that in the passage from Owls and Other Fantasies by Mary Oliver relies heavily on both

Quinlan 3
imagery and use of anaphora and questions to portray to emphasize the message that nature is

very complex and full of contrasts.