Richard Wilbur :"Boy At The Window"

When one is considered naive, it has been thought to determine one as “having or showing a lack of experience, judgment, or information; credulous” (www. dictionary. com). In Richard Wilburs’ poem, Boy at the Window, Wilbur uses simple form language to paint the image of the boy staring out the window at the snowman. In the beginning of the poem, Wilbur reveals two characters, one a snowman and the other a young boy. Both characters in the poem seem to have a connection to each other, and may even consider themselves, friends.

Perhaps the boy may have helped to build the snowman. One day during an incoming storm, the boy peers outside the window and appears to be frightened for the snowman because the snowman has no shelter from the storm “In dusk and cold is more than he can bear” (Clugston, 2010). The boy fears for the snowman’s life because the boy realizes the rain will melt the snowman away.

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However the snowman does not want to come inside the warm house with the boy for fear he will melt and die. In this case who is naive, the boy or the snowman?

Beginning from the perspective of the boy staring out the window, it is obvious the boy feels helpless. The boy realizes that a storm is coming, “A night of gnashing and enormous moan”, (Clugston, 2010) which will eventually wash away the snowman. When the boy feels the snowman is going to die the boys emotions turns to one of hurt.

The young boy does not understand that the snowman needs the cold to survive, even if it means death when it rains. The tone of the poem indicated that perhaps the boy feared what the outside world held for the snowman, and the storm intensified that.

In one world, the inside, the boy felt “Such warmth, such light, such love, and so much fear” (Clugston, 2010). He wanted the snowman to experience the same warmth as he did because the boy took comfort in his surroundings and identified what made him feel safe in his eyes. On the other hand, perhaps the snowman felt sympathy for the young boy. From the outside, the snowman seems to understand how the boy is feeling. So the snowman sheds a tear for the boy because he understands the boy cares a lot about him, “He melts enough to drop from one soft eye A trickle of the purest rain, a tear”, (Clugston, 2010).

Because the snowman does not have a fear of the rain, the snowman does not seem to understand that the storm will cause him to melt away, as he is quite comfortable with being outside in the cold. While the snowman looks quite comfortable outside, the snowman may not portray that feeling to the young boy looking at the snowman from his home. Overall, the theme of the play speaks volumes about being naive and misinterpretation of viewing another persons’ life and how they choose to live it. This point of view that Wilbur tried to relay to the reader allowed me to focus more so on the snowman and how he wanted to live than the boy.

As human beings, one always wants to change what they believe to be wrong in society without asking the person(s) if they want the change. One should never determine how a person’s life should be lived based off of how they are living there own life. But this fact that we are not aware of certain systematically proceeding misinterpretations does not only shape the image of personality, as constituted in the naive and experience of everyday life, but also influences scientific thought, (Ichheiser, 1943). Both are considered to be inexperienced about the fundamentals of life and how they both lived.

The boy took comfort in believing that if the snowman were rescued by bringing the snowman in the house, the snowman would be saved. The snowman believed that by staying outside, no harm would come to him and he was not alone or afraid of the incoming weather, because he had nothing to fear of living outside alone and in the dark. The boy and the snowman lived two diverse lives, one that could never be meshed together because of the scientific fact that one character lived a cold life and the other character lived a life in which there was warmth.