The Octopus Museum is a poem that envisages a dystopian future where the world is ruled by octopuses. Brenda Shaughnessy gets readers to perceive themselves living in a world where octopuses wield authority. Humans have destroyed the environment and their society, resulting in extinction. Octopuses have created a museum to remember the human species. The museum is packed with human mistakes such as brutality, racism, sexism, and total disregard for natural resources. The voice of a character writing letters to humans from the future lays everything bare when explaining how humans’ own mistakes cost them. Humans “choose evil, elected it, and protected it.” The character goes on and explains how this evil squandered every chance by funding the greedy, terrorizing the children, poisoning the oceans, stealing the land, and maiming the animals.
Shaughnessy writes the poems as a concerned person. She seems to be worried about environmental destruction, racism, sexism, and gun violence. Therefore, she gets readers to consider the consequences of their actions. Having squandered every chance, humans extinct and octopuses take over the world. For instance, in the poem “Are Women People?” the Cephalopod researchers commission a report about human studies. The report shows how humans wielded their tools to understand the mysteries of octopuses better.
The Octopus Museum scrutinizes human society. Shaughnessy achieves this by demonstrating the cephalopod’s scholarly exploration of human culture by using modes and techniques used by humans themselves for analysis. The scholars seem to blame humans for invading their habitat to serve their legacy. The detailed analysis shows the detrimental actions of humans.
