In this world all organisms must find something to eat, and without food they cannot survive. Some of the animals cannot live without eating the other animals. In this poem a poet shows us how two kinds of animals want to eat the other animal: the monkey who is the prey in this poem and the snake and the crocodile who are the predators. The poet gives the reader an ironic side of how the person protects the prey without killing the predators.
The poet starts this poem with the man thinking about what he has to do to help the monkey cross the river. The man sits on the platform with his rifle and that platform was high in a tree. There was a river between the person on the platform and the monkey who needs help “How does this assist him?” (Line 6). The monkey wants to cross that river by swimming, but he has two small hands that make him swim very slowly. The man saw two predators who want to eat the monkey, and this monkey does not know that it is going to be prey for them and “predators move faster with the current than against it” (line 8-9).
The crocodile and the snake are the predators in this poem. The crocodile wants to eat the monkey from upriver, and the snake from downriver. They are racing to reach the monkey. During that time, the man who is on the platform is thinking of how he is going to protect the monkey from the crocodile and snake. He was thinking of the best way to help that monkey. He was thinking, and he was using many kinds of math calculations “the math, algebra, angles, rate-of-monkey” (line 13). He was thinking how fast are the speeds of the snake and crocodile, and how long will they take to reach to the monkey. He thought to kill the snake and crocodile, but he did not do that because he asks himself how those animals can live without eating other animals. The predators are just trying to survive: “They’re just doing their jobs” (line 23). He guessed the best way to protect that monkey is to just shoot near it one, two, and three times into the river to make the monkey swim faster; thus the snake and crocodile won’t catch it. I think he was so comfortable because he did that to protect the monkey without killing the snake and crocodile. In the last three lines the poet shows us how monkeys are like the humans. He describes how monkey’s hands are like a child’s hand. Also monkeys are smart and can smile like people: “but the monkey, the monkey has little hands like a child’s, and the smart ones, in a cage, can be taught to smile” (Line 24-26). The man on the platform looks to this monkey like a child, and he feels a very good emotion towards that monkey. He thought, I have to help this monkey because he is almost human. I think that will be another reason for the man to help the monkey.
One day in my life, I had a similar story like “To Help the Monkey Cross the River." I went to sea at night with my friends, and there were four of us. We were wearing diving clothes. Each one of us had a spear gun and an underwater diving light. We went into the sea one by one. The moon light reflected from the sky like sugar shines. Suddenly, I saw a sea snake. It had three different colors: black, brown, and green, with blue eyes, and a big mouth with two canines. In the other side I saw one small fish. Its yellow color shined like gold. I knew that most kinds of fish cannot see in the night because they are sleeping. I was thinking how I could protect this small fish from that sea snake. The sea snake started moving to the small fish to eat him. I was thinking the best way to help this fish was to kill the sea snake and to let the fish live, but I didn’t do that because this sea snake was doing his job to survive. I just shoot near the sea snake to run away from the fish.
I like this poem because there are some similarities with my experience. I like the irony in both stories. The irony that the man in the poem and I both shared was that we didn’t kill the predators. We let them survive because they were doing their jobs. Sometimes we decide to do something, but we don't do it. That’s the irony after the man and I thought about killing the predators, but we didn’t kill them.
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