In this essay, I will work on two essential questions. First, how to understand the poet’s moral stance – whether we should interpret the poem as a work of sympathy or a moral dictation after seeing an accidental disaster. Second, how to understand the poem’s title, “The Armadillo”. To be more specific, why Bishop puts much weigh on the armadillo while the little creature only appears in two of the ten quatrains; and why she abandons the crashed fire balloon, which causes the following chaotic flee and is the most written one in the poem.

In The Armadillo, Bishop captured the accident when a fire balloon crashes and emblazes a wood in a traditional rite of St. John’s Day. The custom of sending fire balloons repeated year after year. However, Bishop draws a foreshadowing of the fatal consequence at the beginning. She points out that the fire balloons are frail and illegal, but still rise high almost every night. The fire balloons are sent aloft in a special time when laws and regulations retreat, leaving the mass for a religious carnival.

Bishop’s attitude towards the religious custom appears to be complicated. The flushing fire balloons are made and sent to approach the saint. However, Bishop compares the balloons which come and go to the hearts of the believers, adding a touch of irony to the poem. Without firm beliefs, the sincerity behind the religious ritual becomes suspect. And the custom of sending fire balloons is more like a secular celebration rather than a sacred rite.

The most insightful description of the balloons happens when the balloons are away from the crowd. People on the ground can no longer tell the balloons from the shining stars. Here, Bishop mentions Venus and Mars particularly. It is natural to associate the two planets with the Roman gods, after which they are named. The combination of the goddess of love and the god of war implies that the fire balloons can become either an aesthetic object or a destructive weapon. The possible destiny awaits each of them is faint until they pass through wind and flow, going up or suddenly turning down.

Bishop places the crashed balloon and the following fire in an ambivalent background – a festive time when norms and regulations retreat, a suspicious motivation combining transcending orientation with wanton celebration, and an unpredictable wind blow that may bring things up or down. The crashed balloon could have been floating between the Southern Cross solemnly and steadily. Unfortunately, it reached the ground and brought panic and terror to the wood inhabitants.

The fierce but expected turn happens when Bishop begins to recall one of the many fire-balloon crashes, which she witnessed the day before. Bishop does not make direct descriptions on the fire; instead, she guides us to the fleeing beasts. The armadillo is finally brought to the sight among a pair of owls and a baby rabbit. Bishop set the armadillo in the central position of the three species. And a sense of time is introduced. Bishop explicitly relates the owls to an ancient origin and the rabbit to a new-born generation. As a result, we may locate the armadillo to the present. The sequential order makes the armadillo symbolic and intriguing.

Unlike the pair of owls or the soft baby rabbit, the armadillo is neither so capable of flying away from the dangerous fire nor is it soft and vulnerable like a handful of intangible ash. The little creature is armored with glistening scales, which can protect it from the predators and the sharp stones in the soil. However, the armor turns useless in the face of the fire raining from the sky. The little beast is so helpless that it leaves the scene hastily and all alone.

In the final stanza, Bishop summarizes the chaos. The owls and the rabbit seems to have left the scene, leaving piercing cry and panic behind. Only the armadillo is still within sight of the poet. The animal curls up again like it does every time when danger comes. However, neither its scales nor the protective posture can make any difference in the indiscriminate attack of a fire. The armadillo is weak, not because it has never had the power to protect itself, but because the shield it used to rely on turns invalid and feeble. It is also ignorant, not because it fails to survive the disaster, but because it rolls up into a ball again when it has left the burning wood, and no imminent danger exists anymore.

The armadillo is essential and symbolic, for it reflects how men may act in an unpredictable and incomprehensible disaster. The once defensible armor is no stronger than a decoration, no more effective than merely fleeing away. However, the armadillo still clenches itself, out of habits, or out of fear. The invalidation of once-reliable defense is more impactful and thought-provoking than the mere destruction brought by the crashed fire balloon.

It is difficult to categorize the poem as a moral sermon. It seems that Bishop has no intention to blame the fire balloons or the crowd who send them for the chaos caused by the fire, nor does she show great sympathy for the suffering of the terrifying beasts.

She points out people’s mixed motivation in the religious carnival and the dual destiny of a fire balloon. The same activity and the same object may end in two extremes, the aesthetic and peaceful one, which can arouse one’s faith, and the disastrous one that may lead to painful suffering. We can not foresee which of the endings awaits us when the balloons rise high and become indistinguishable from the stars and form each other. The transformation of the harmless flickering balloon to the deadly flame may complete in a flash and out of the control of humans. And the final disaster is rather an accident than intentional destruction. Besides, Bishop provides the narration as an observer. Her distance from the balloon, its senders and the victim beasts, also prevent the poem from regretful remorse or an outraged accusation.

The title of the poem also impels readers to speculate on the meaning behind the armadillo. Bishop portrays this timid little creature in a decent way, placing it in the center of the three species. It belongs neither to the ancient world nor to the new-born generation. It is neither capable enough to flee from the burning scene with one or two flapping nor too fragile to defend itself from any threat. Under the impact of the fire caused by an accidentally crashed fire balloon, Bishop is able to present the invalidation of the armadillo’s armor, and its ignorance of seeking shelter from defenses that have failed. At the end of the poem, we may find ourselves in the armadillo, who cannot break through or get rid of its innate protection.