Sample Literature Review On “Accident” – Todd Davis

I believe the theme of the poem is confusion over why a school full of children was told a man had committed suicide. Furthermore, it appears the poem is about why the children were lied to, as they were sixth graders, and if they did not know already, it would not take them long to understand it was not an accident, but rather a deliberate suicide. Another possible theme could be Davis’ confusion over why anybody would take their own life. Several pieces of imagery suggest these themes.
For example, in the opening of the poem, Davis is unsure why they could not have waited to tell the children at school about the death. Whether he is referring to the man’s son or the faculty is unclear; all that is apparent is he does not believe an entire school full of children need to learn about the tragedy of death so young. Toward the end of the poem, Davis admits his son, Noah, understands nobody dies while cleaning their gun because the barrel does not have any bullets in it, therefore, the death could not have been an accident. He insinuates with this imagery that if his son knows, it is only a matter of time before the other students understand the boy’s son decided to kill himself, rather than accidentally killed himself. He also insinuates the lie is not even convincing, as a sixth grader already has the information to see through it. Finally, Davis appears confused about why anybody would take their own life at all, as he speak about the weather being warm enough to sleep with the windows open, and the smell of forsythia floating in the rooms of the house. The imagery Davis uses makes it difficult to understand why anybody would want to leave life behind, but Davis perhaps did not understand what the man was going through.