“Meditations for a Savage Child" を読む --歴史の発掘者リッチ--

Abstract

This report treats "Meditations for a Savage Child" by Adrienne Rich, one of the poems in her seventh book, Diving into the Wrerk. In this title, the 'Wreck' is this world, which stands on the brink of ruin. 'Diving into the Wreck' means that we who are alive now should recognize the danger and avoid it by going down into the sea and examining the wrecked vessel. The fact that "Meditations for a Savage Child" is placed at the end of the book expresses its importance among the poems in this book. The form of this poem is unique. At the beginning of each part--this poem consists of five parts--Rich presents an extract from a report by Dr. G. M. Itard about the education of a wild boy who was found in a village in southern France at the very end of the 18th century. Then her own poem follows part by part. By adopting this technique, Rich lets us compare the two. She intends us to reconsider the great achievement of Dr. Itard, by this juxtaposition. The content of this poem is also very serious and urgent. This boy had grown up alone from childhood, perhaps as the result of some inhuman treatment by adults. Then he was recaptured and educated as a member of the civilized world. Using his report as an occasion to express her thoughts and feelings, Rich reconsiders what human beings are. She reveals the relationship of human beings with nature, the relationships between human beings, especially powerful people--politicians, authorities, doctors and scientists (they are all men) and powerless people--children, the disabled, the retarded and women. She describes injuries on both the heart and the body. Her thinking extends to primitive men and their state, in constrast with the pollution and destruction of nature by civilization and war. This poem calls our attention to the world which is now on the brink of extinction.