For this blog post I will be writing about the image of the red wheelbarrow that William Carol Williams presents in his poem The Red Wheelbarrow.
The wheel barrow in Williams’s poem is pretty vividly described. He tells us that it is both red and glazed with rainwater. Even though he only uses eight words to describe it we can picture it pretty well in our head. We see a wheel barrow, obviously red, but that is glistening slightly in the sun from the little bit of rain water that is on it. We can also see that because the wheel barrow is “glazed” with rain water that this image isn’t something that would last a long time. In fact, we would expect the water to dry pretty quickly and the glistening disappearing with it. This is the literal interpretation of the red wheel barrow, but we can also take the wheel barrow to be a metaphor for something else.
If we perceive the wheel barrow to be a metaphor for something the possibilities of what this wheel barrow is increases exponentially. One perception of the wheel barrow is that it represents the labor of the nation of the whole. I state this for the following reasons. First, a wheel barrow is something that is used for labor, so literally it is a labor machine. Second, Williams writes that “so much depends upon a red wheel barrow.” When he says “so much” he really means everything because if the wheel barrow is the labor of the nation because if labor would cease, so would life as we know it. Without labor there would be no one harvesting the food that we eat, no one cleaning the water we drink, and no one protecting the things we hold most dear.
In addition to this post I am adding this link to a picture of a red wheelbarrow I seem fitting for the post. The wheelbarrow may not be glazed with rain water, but it is "glazed" with the things that it is doing labor for. In this picture the wheelbarrow is also next to the white chickens while it is conducting labor, which is its metaphorical meaning in the poem.
http://cakeandcommerce.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b19169e201156e3f10cd970c-800wi
Other than a few grammatical errors,I agree with your analysis in relation to the wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow is very central to the poem itself. I understand that the image you have chosen includes not only the wheelbarrow, and the chickens, but the representation of food which is dependent on the labor involved with the wheelbarrow, but I wish you would have included a further discussion in regards to the image you chose. It would have been nice if you posted the picture, versus providing the link; there might have been a little more clarity.
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