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18 pages 36 minutes read

Naomi Shihab Nye

300 Goats

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2016

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Themes

The Urge to Anthropomorphize

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human qualities to nonhuman entities. To imagine and express the feelings, thoughts, or interior conditions of, say, a goat, is to create a metaphor, or linguistic symbol, for something abstract, inaccessible, or unknowable. Anthropomorphism can be subtle, as when Nye’s speaker asks, “Will they huddle together, warm bodies pressing?” (Line 3)—to huddle means simply to crowd together, and goats are as capable of that action as humans. The anthropomorphism is discernible more through the tone of the poem. The speaker is worried and supposes that the goats need guidance and protection.

In her book, The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness (Prickly Paradigm Press, 2003), feminist scholar Donna J. Haraway discusses her own anthropomorphism of her dog. Anthropomorphism becomes a way of learning the “otherness” of another creature to live together and coevolve.

The potential danger of the human urge to anthropomorphize is in stripping an animal of its animal-ness. The speaker refers to the Chinese zodiac, and whether the goat/sheep figure symbolizes leadership qualities or a passive, follower nature. The goats are only qualified in the poem by their number, which is large: 300. The speaker cannot empirically observe the goats, as they are far away in another town. In her imagination, however, she spurs “little ones toward bulkier bodies” (Line 8).

At the heart of the speaker’s concern, perhaps, is compassion. The goats are living beings, and the night is icy. The speaker would be suffering if she were outside, exposed to the wind and chill. She feels the cold on the goats’ behalf. The fact that the speaker’s friend, the rancher, takes a cooler position on the goats’ well-being doesn’t minimize the speaker’s position. It’s not unreasonable to care about the goats. The rancher points out that the goats are not helpless without human protection, that they have their own kind of strength and agency.

Nature as Antagonistic

In this period of environmental crises, as evidence continues to mount that human activity and behavior adversely affects weather patterns, it’s difficult to credibly present the classic narrative of Human versus Nature. Nature, while resilient, is damaged, and humans are, evidently, largely responsible. For some, responsibility—especially when it cannot be met—leads to guilt. In that light, it’s easy for the reader to understand the speaker’s concern for the goats. The goats live on a ranch, which speaks to their unnatural circumstances—they are kept for human purpose; they are not wild animals. To the speaker, it appears as if the goats are abandoned to fend for themselves against the elements, as it is the rancher’s job to ensure their safety, and the rancher is far away.

For the speaker, the cold weather is an antagonist, a negative force. The fields are iced over; the water in the tank is frozen and undrinkable. The speaker implores an anonymous god to “[l]ead them to the brush, which cuts the icy wind” (Line 9) because “[a]nother frigid night [is] swooping down” (Line 10) like a hungry predator. The weather in “300 Goats” is something to escape from, from which tender beings need protection. The rancher, who does not live in a populated city but alone on a remote ranch, sees things differently. The weather is something that happens but is not something that is happening to anyone.

Followers and Leaders

The concept of followers and leaders implies a situation in which many are guided by a few. The year “300 Goats” was published in an American presidential election year, particularly notable for its dramatic change of leadership. The parenthetical that starts on the fourth line of the poem about the Chinese zodiac is an associative leap. In the zodiac, the Chinese character signifies both goats and sheep. In English vernacular, sheep are symbols of passive followers. The speaker asks, “(Is it the year of the goat or the sheep? / Scholars debating” (Lines 4-5). These lines point to circumstances beyond that of the 300 goats. What is in store for this year, and who are the followers, who the leaders?

The aside serves, as well, as a bridge between the speaker’s contemplation of a huddled mass of goats trying to keep warm and the benediction that calls for divine or otherwise disembodied help for the livestock. To ask something of a divine entity or some power beyond oneself is to distinguish oneself as one of the flock.

In the end, the rancher repositions the 300 goats as an intelligent entity capable of making sound decisions for itself. While the rancher appears to be a capable and autonomous entity “who lives by herself on the ranch of goats” (Line 12), she exhibits no patriarchal tendencies. Instead, she “shrugs” (Line 14) and trusts the herd to survive on their own power. 

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