The Speaker
The unnamed speaker narrates the poem in the past tense, reflecting on a traumatic event from her childhood in which she shot and killed an owl. Initially, the speaker is naive and rebellious, as she proudly narrates her choice to kill the owl. She depicts this decision as an assertion of her own power and independence. However, the speaker then describes in graphic detail the horror of the owl's death and the disgust and regret the event invoked in her. The imagery of the poem indicates that this incident foreshadows the speaker's loss of innocence as she grows older. In particular, the speaker's description of herself as a "horny fiend" foreshadows her sexual awakening later in life, which is often a component of teenage rebellion. The poem's final line, "for what I had begun," further suggests that the speaker's rebellious spirit and loss of innocence, exemplified by her decision to shoot the owl, will continue to develop with time.
However, the child does not lack empathy; she weeps and is horrified by the death that she inflicted. She begins by conceptualizing herself as a "judge," but later regrets that role and wishes that she hadn't exercised her power in such a violent way. As such, the speaker describes a pivotal moment in her own moral development, in which she comes to understand the true gravity and finality of death.
The Father
The father is depicted as authoritative and somewhat foreboding, but also comforting. He is the archetypal parental figure who both imposes responsibility on their child and comforts them. Notably, the gun that the child steals belongs to the father. He symbolizes the full power and responsibility of adulthood, which the child is unable to accept. At the beginning of the poem, the child believes that her father is "robbed of power / by sleep," indicating that he is normally a powerful and imposing figure in her life (line 7). However, the child naively believes that her father's sleep allows her to become more powerful and independent, taking on an adult role while he is innocent like a child.
Later, the father discovers the child in the barn after she has shot and injured the owl, and commands that the child shoot the owl again in order to kill it. By doing so, he responds to the child's decision to rebel by forcing her to bear full responsibility for her actions. He could have shot the owl himself, but instead demands that the child "end what you have begun" (line 36). The father recognizes the inevitability of his child growing up and making mistakes, but also believes that the child must take full responsibility for such mistakes, even if it is painful. By forcing the child to shoot the owl again, he exposes her to the responsibility and heavy burdens associated with adulthood. In the final lines, however, he allows the child to "lean[] [her] head upon [his] arm" and weep, fulfilling his role as a comforting adult figure who will help his child cope with the trauma of the incident.
