The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.
2007-01-05 07:17:37 · 13 answers · asked by mattd5690 3 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
A lot of things that you do in "fun", other people take quite seriously.
2007-01-05 07:19:42 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
It's like this. You kill a squirrel in jest. That squirrel's life didn't mean anything to you so you killed it as a joke, yet the squirrel died in earnest. That life was sure important to the squirrel.
2007-01-05 07:20:31 · answer #2 · answered by Ty Cobb 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Mr. Thoreau was quit the thought provacatier...
IMHO, it means, something so small and insignificant as a squirrel, we kill for fun, yet the squirrel spends every waking moment trying to avoid being killed for food... so his death was a constant struggle to survive, yet we as humans are so casual about it that we would kill it for sport or fun.
2007-01-05 07:24:41 · answer #3 · answered by rollng_thundr 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
What that means is that even if you are just kidding and do something hurtful it still hurts the other. So if you kill a squirell as a joke, it really dies seriously.
Like my son has a tendency to say hateful things and then say I was just joking. I keep telling him that it is not a joke if it hurts someones feelings.
2007-01-05 07:20:31 · answer #4 · answered by Hotsauce 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I think it probably means that something you may think is funny may actually hurt someone else.
For example, you may make a racial joke. Funny to you in your jest, inside it is killing the person the joke is about.
Just because you didn't mean anything by it doesn't mean that it isn't offensive.
2007-01-05 07:21:16 · answer #5 · answered by Thegustaffa 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You're over thinking this. It's not a metaphor.
Let me break it down:
You take your BB gun or sling shot and decided to have some fun killing squirrels. The squirrel (a sentient being) ACTUALLY dies. It is not having fun. It is dying.
Henry David Thoreau was, among other things, a naturalist.
2014-03-17 11:24:34 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It means that even though you were just fooling around, you killed the squirrel, resulting in serious consequences for him.
2007-01-05 07:19:47 · answer #7 · answered by grinonli 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you kill a cow and eat it it did not die in vain.. If you kill it for fun and dont eat it it then died for nothing.. Same applies for the Squirrell
2007-01-05 07:19:27 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Although an odd statement, it means that death is still death for the victim, no matter what your reason may be for killing them
2007-01-05 08:21:00 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I don't really know how to answer this
2016-07-28 07:20:09 · answer #10 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋