Topic - The Cockroach by Kevin Halligan
(First PEEP)
(First PEEP)
Firstly, Halligan has used a lot of time
phrases to create an image of a journey of life from birth to death. These
constant uses of time phrases also represent the continuous change of
perceptions in a human mind deepening into the dilemma of a human mind and soul
helping to lay parallels with the poet and the cockroach. The poet has used ‘at
first’ to create an image of a newborn baby starting to walk onto the path of
life available to him. Halligan then uses ‘but soon’ to depict the teenage
years of a human and the increase of maturity of the cockroach. The use of the
phrase ‘but’ is very striking here because it foreshadows the fact that there
might be a change in perceptions of the cockroach or the poet. Indeed, The poet
becomes greedier and supposedly runs behind the dirty attachments in life, not
realizing that this is the beginning of his dilemma. The poet then uses the
phrase ‘after a while’ to depict the image of an adult. Here, it is quite
humorous to find that even after being at the peak of it’s maturity, the
cockroach does not know where to go and is still confused with the fact of the
difference between what it has achieved and what it yet has to achieve. The
intelligent use of time phrases, give jerks to the poem symbolizing the fact
that life is not a very smooth journey and there will be a lot of obstacles in
your way, so instead of avoiding the obstacles you will have to face them.
Thus, laying parallels between the cockroach and the poet.
