Understanding concepts such as mortality often is difficult for people. Various things lead to understanding such as experiences and aging and different people react to understanding, or lack of, in different ways. Although there is truth in the statements made gaining understanding can be a difficult and sometimes strenuous process. In the "Groundhog" by Richard Eberhart the speaker views the decay process of a groundhog over time and this helps him to come to terms with his mortality through the groundhogs four stages of decay and through the speakers four reactions.

The speaker describes the dead groundhogs decay in four stages as time progresses and this helps him accept his own mortality. He first describes the groundhog as simply looking "dead." This shows his views in the summer in which he first saw it. Here he is immature about death and does not yet accept it. He "prod...