Badlands Analysis

Your father worked Drumheller while you ate and slept at home.

He travelled the badlands, squatted below rocks, read books you never knew he read.

He sat until his eyes strained to know what the prairie insisted he must see.

Once he found a hoodoo,
toppled after centuries of reaching beyond the flattened earth
we all become and remembering that, once, it was a mountain.

He stripped naked and coated himself with spit and dirt,

arched his back into the rocks and let his speckled shoulders

fade under mud, until his whole body became that colour.

When he dressed himself again, jeans over earth-caked legs,

he walked back to the lease, and danced and prayed for the well to flow.

Your father worked Drumheller while you ate and slept at home, he stalked the badlands with his shotgun and a pack of smokes

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This poem, "Badlands," by Mathew Henderson uses imagery very successfully to provide a snapshot into the life of a hardworking, prairie man, who by working harder than anyone ever should, faces all kinds of challenges every day, just to provide water for his family, while working in the Badlands, a region of Northern Alberta, where the climate is very dry and scorching hot, where one must fight to survive.  Particularly, "He stripped naked and coated himself with spit and dirt," shows the extent to which his father, the protagonist of the poem, would work to, fight, in a way, against the Alberta Badlands.  Another powerful quote "When he dressed himself again, jeans over earth-caked legs, he walked back to the lease, and danced and prayed for the well to flow, "reveals recurring themes in the poem including hard work, pain, hope, and an insight into how much this man had to give to let his family and his son stay at home all day. Going back to the third line, the author personifies the Prairie itself , "He sat until his eyes strained to know what the prairie insisted he must see." This poem uses many literary devices to enhance the overall reading experience.  

This poem is very effectively written, as it offers debate and discussion on the main message: Is the male(who provides for his family) or the female (who cares for the children more important in a family? For example, If I were a feminist, I would consider that this poem glorifies the male, taking a massive physical toll to provide for his family, while the woman is completely ignored, as has been the case for much of history.  Although the man is working very hard in the Badlands, the woman is caring for their child, which is just as, if not more important.  However, if I were an male chauvinist, I would counter-argue this point by saying that the average female would not be able to take the physical and mental toll of working countless hours in one of the most barren regions of Canada, while still being able to provide for their families. Also, I would argue that providing for my family requires me (in this case) to do excruciating work, and that it therefore should be glorified.

Although this poem is very powerful, I disagree with this poem on a personal level, on multiple points, including that only the man of the house can do this type of demanding physical work and that the author portrays the Badlands and Prairies as a sort of hell, where only the insane or extremely hardworking people can survive.  Due to my mother's side of the family having roots in southeastern Saskatchewan, where hard work is instilled from birth, all the members of the family had to help out on the farm every day, and even back in the 1940's when my grandparents were growing up, the women and men would work long hard hours on the farm every day.  Also, although it may be true that people from the prairies have to work much harder on average than people living in cities, the people who live in those small towns across the prairies are not insane and do not work hard all the time (they relax when it is too hot).  As an individual, I have learned much about the toughness and work ethic required to live on the prairies and in the Badlands, knowledge that many people will never learn nor appreciate.