

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter known for her detailed, and often grotesque self-portraits. These paintings were often very personal and held a deeper meaning relating to her difficult life. At the age of 18, Frida was in a freak bus accident where a handrail from the totaled vehicle penetrated her pelvis. This caused severe health issues for Frida, including spinal issues, infertility, and depression. Her life was changed forever, and she was stuck in a hospital bed for several months while in recovery. When she was stuck in her bed, she began painting to occupy herself and placed a mirror above her bed, allowing her to paint portraits. Her paintings quickly became famous due to her artistic talent and ability to portray complex meanings within her visual text. The Wounded Deer is one of her most identifiable and peculiar paintings that portrays her feelings about a failed back surgery. In this painting, Frida Kahlo depicts the incapability to control one’s destiny through the image of a deer’s physical wounds, dead trees, and stormy skies, because these images are what is trapping the deer in the woods with no way to escape.

The Wounded Deer portrays the physical pain that Frida suffered after her accident. The painting depicts an image of a deer being shot in the back with arrows in a dark forest. The animal has the face of Frida herself, which clearly shows that the artist is using the image to discuss her own personal pain. Frida is using her own head on the body of an animal to de-personify her own self. After her accident, she was left scarred both emotionally and physically, and was left to feel worthless. Her technique of reverse personification in this painting allows her to discuss the fact that she feels less human after undergoing all of her pain. The arrows piercing her spine reflect upon a specific back surgery that she received which ended up being unsuccessful. She was upset with the outcome of the operation, and was left with a feeling of little hope for her recovery. While physically, the arrows represent her back pain, they also represent the uncontrollable fate of a deer in the woods. When being hunted, deer do not have much control over their fate. Hunters will hide out so that the deer has no idea they are present, and at any moment, the hunter will go in for the kill. Deer can hardly control if or when they are shot, which can quickly change their life. Much like the fact that deer cannot control their fate, Frida had no control over the bus accident, leaving her incapable to progress with the rest of her life in the way that she may have pleased.

The setting of the dead forest depicts Frida’s lost hope for her future. Forests are often used in literature as a symbol of getting lost, with characters being trapped in the woods, not knowing which way is out. After the accident, she received many surgeries that were of no help to her pain. Her pain restricted her from going about a normal lifestyle, so she had feelings of being trapped in her own body, and lost in the world. The deer in this painting is sitting on the floor of the woods, struggling to escape and being left to die, much like the feelings Frida experienced of losing control over her life. The dead trees have no leaves remaining on them, and there are broken branches on the ground. This represents the death of her future – no longer was she able to fulfil her hopes and dreams because she was confined in her weakened body. She felt trapped and felt like she was falling apart, much like the forest surrounding her in her portrait.

The stormy skies in the background represent the hope that Frida will never reach. As the deer lies hopeless in the bed of the forest, it cannot move toward a better fate. In the background, a thunder storm is brewing above the ocean. The lightning striking represents the glimmer of hope within Frida, as she wishes for a better future and a stronger recovery. The water that lies beneath the storm is the new beginning that she is longing for. Frida wants a fresh start after her accident, and is wishing to be back in her uninjured body. But for the deer, and for Frida, there is no reachable hope. The deer is trapped within the forest, left to die, and has no way of making it to the clearing by the ocean, much like Frida cannot attain the dreams she wishes to accomplish due to the constraints of her injured body. Both the deer and Frida are unable to change their destinies after their injuries due to the physical restraints holding them back from living how they want.

The Wounded Deer by Frida Kahlo illustrates the unpredictability of one’s fate using the image of physical injuries, fallen trees, and tempestuous seas. While Frida’s angry emotions toward a failed back surgery channeled into her work, she was able to comment on the struggles many people face when experiencing a traumatic event. When a life-changing occurrence happens in somebody’s life, it is often difficult to move past it. Whether it be physical or emotional trauma, any event that leaves scars on somebody restrains them from finding the strength to move on. Though physical restraints are certainly more difficult to overcome, one must find the strength within them to accomplish their goals and change their future. No matter how difficult the challenge is that must be faced, there is almost always a way for somebody to change their fate for the better.
