Killing Chickens free essay sample

Betrayal and loneliness are two of the hardest emotions to encounter in life. Nevertheless, at some point everyone will experience and be forced to deal with them. This is made even harder when they are caused by someone you love and trust. In Meredith Hall’s â€Å"Killing Chickens†, she uses various literary devices such as metaphor, simile, and imagery as she processes her husband’s affair and describes having to kill chickens. Hall’s literary nonfiction is based on the happenings of a specific day that was truly hard to handle after being deceived by ones she loved: I was killing chickens. It was my 38th birthday. My brother had chosen that morning to tell me that he had caught his wife – my best friend, Ashley – in bed with my husband a year before. I had absorbed the rumors with suspicions about other women for 10 years, but this one, I knew, was going to break us. We will write a custom essay sample on Killing Chickens or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page When I roared upstairs and confronted John, he told me to go fuck myself, ran downstairs and jumped into the truck. Our sons, Sam and Ben, were making a surprise for me at the table; they stood behind me silently in the kitchen door while John gunned the truck out of the yard (5). This passage helps us understand the present situation in Hall’s life. She found out that her husband is cheating on her and does not show any signs of regret or remorse. In addition, her brother had known for a year and had chosen her birthday to tell her that he found her husband cheating. Lastly, her best friend was whom her husband was cheating with. In these few sentences, the betrayal she feels is made clear. She also explains the reason for having to do such a horrific task that her husband would usually do. Throughout â€Å"Killing Chickens† Hall identifies her children, her husband, and the chickens. One quote the author uses is â€Å"It’s all right. Everything is going to be all right. Shh, Silly, shh (7). † The way she is consoling the chickens right before she is about to kill them is the same way she is reassuring her children that everything will be all right: â€Å"’I’m coming in,’ I called in a false singsong voice from the kitchen door. ‘Better hide my surprise. ’† Just as Hall identifies the chickens and her children, she explains, â€Å"I turned her on her floppy neck again and again. Corkscrewing her breathing tube, struggling to end the gasping. † Just as Hall is making many attempts to kill the chicken, she is unable to do it until it finally gives in. This is the same way her husband has been treating her for the past ten years with all the rumors and suspicions until finally she reached a breaking point. The author uses a number of different literary devices to describe the hardship she feels such as metaphor, simile, and imagery. The author revels that her life and the chickens are not very different. â€Å"I felt her body break deep inside my own chest† (6). The way the chicken has to be killed after being loved for so long is the same way Hall feels about being with her husband for so long and then having him cheat on her and leave her. â€Å"Guilt and fear tugged me like an undertow† (7). The chickens are being killed by the one that loved them and in the same way; Hall is killed by the one she loved: her husband. The author uses a numerous number of vivid imagery to describe the struggle she is going through with her husband leaving and her having to kill the chickens. â€Å"Her shiny black beak opened and closed, opened and closed† (5). The rumors and suspicions that the author’s husband was cheating on her would come and go, until it reached a breaking point with her best friend Ashley. â€Å"I tucked her wings tight against her heaving body, couched over her, and covered her flailing head with my glove hand. Holding her neck hard against the chicken coop, I took a breath, set something deep and hard inside my heart and twisted her head† (5). Symbolizes Hall’s husband as he secretly has affairs with other women while his wife does not know, and then her brother tells her of the crushing news that her husband was with her best friend. As the nonfiction progresses, it is clear that the author is starting to let the realization of what has really happened set in and see that she is going to overcome this bump in her life. â€Å"I wanted to call someone, to call my mother or my sister. Yesterday I would have called Ashley†¦Instead I brought in three loads of wood and put them in the box John had left empty† (7). ‘Know what? †Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ I said. ‘Know what I want to do? Let us just stay here and have our own little party. Just us†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (7). You can tell that she is not going to let anything stop her and that she is going to continue to do the chores and keep taking care of her children no matter what. As the excerpt ends, you can start to visualize the author has overcome her tragedy. â€Å"Tomorrow morning, I thought I have to run over the garden and go to the dump. Tomorrow morning, I have to call a lawyer. I have to figure out what to say to Sam and Benjamin. I have to put Ben’s sculpture on the mantel and put some main in Sam’s holder on the desk. I have to clean out the coop and spread fresh shavings† (8). Hall is not going to let her husband slow her down and she expresses that clearly in the last paragraph. Hall’s literary nonfiction teaches the readers the lesson that no matter how hard life can get, there is always something to keep you going. In the story, the author takes us through a firsthand look of how she was able to overcome betrayal and loneliness and move on with her life with what is most important to her: her children.