Paraphrase Explanation of Traveling Through The Dark and Glossary Class 12 English

UNIT TWO : ECOLOGY AND CHANGE
TRAVELING THROUGH THE DARK
ENGLISH | THE HERITAGE OF WORDS
William Stafford

Short Summary

While driving at night a man finds a dead deer. He stops to push it off the road. He notices that it is pregnant and the unborn baby is still alive. He stops to think, and then he pushes the dead animal into the river.

Paraphrase/Explanation

First Stanza: I was travelling at night by the Wilson River road when I found a dead deer. The road is not very wide, so the best thing to do is push the dead animal off the road into the river. If you try to drive around the deer's body, you might drive off of the road and be killed.

Second Stanza: I got out of the car, leaving the lights on and I went to the deer. It had been killed recently; it was already stiff and nearly cold. I pulled the deer's body to the edge of the road. Its stomach was large and I realised that her side was warm.

Third Stanza: When I touched the deer, I realised she was pregnant. Its baby, inside her, was still alive and was waiting to be born – but it never would be. I stood on the road trying to decide what to do.

Fourth Stanza: The lights of the car shone and the engine was still on. I stood by the warm exhaust. I could hear the wild animals listening.

Fifth Stanza: I thought hard about w hat to do, my thoughts were the only thing that changed direction, and then I pushed the dead deer off the road into the river.

Glossary

deer: large animal with large horns; canyon: deep valley with a river in it; swerve: change direction suddenly; glow: not very bright light; faint light; tail light: red lights at the back of a car; doe: female deer; stumble: walk, and almost fall over; stiffened: became hard-not able to be bent; belly: stomach; brought me the reason: made me understand what had happened; fawn: baby deer; hesitated: stopped and thought; aimed: pointed, directed; hood: front of the car (Brit Eng=bonnet);purred: made a soft sound, murmured; glare: harsh light; exhaust: fumes/smoke that comes out of the back of a car; wilderness: jungle – like area, thick forest, and the animals in it.