Question

Bring out the parallel suggested between the predatory instincts of the bird and human behaviour.

Answer 1

Ted Hughes has often known in his poetry to draw a connection between the animal world and human behaviour, to mention examples of animals or birds or even fish.

• According to him, we human beings are social creatures, but the animal instinct still resides in us. Hughes discusses this human trait, where the predatory instinct takes over.
• In the poem, as the Hawk hungers for strength and authority, human beings too thirst for strength and practice dominance.
• The perception of the Hawks is blinded or distorted by their vision, and their ignorance is their paradise even amongst humans. A relentless war is going on, the survival of the fittest, which is the jungle raj.
• The Hawk talks of its hereditary influence from the roost in which it lives. This flaunts its pride and self-affirmation, just as the way all other human beings do.