However, the narrator is a writer. Within the poem, it seems as though the narrator does not fit in to the family and finds himself as an outsider. He remembers his father and grandfather in the potato field and peat bog, memories that undoubtedly played a huge role in his identity while growing up. He admits that he is not like them. Not until the end of the poem do we finally get a glance at how the narrator discovers that his writing is, in certain ways, similar to the work of his father and grandfather. By the end of "Digging," the narrator seems more confident in who he is and what he does, identifying both as different from his father and grandfather but also similar to them; his work requires that he digs as well, but with a pen instead. This is seen in the quote "Between my finger and my thumb, the squat pen rests. I'll dig with it" (29-31).
In order to dig, you must have ability. You also need a tool, whether it is a spade or shovel. The narrator's only tool is the pen. He admits that although his pen isn't quite as great as the spades of his father and grandfather, he is decided to be as skilled as he possibly can with it. Our narrator is not so good at farming, but he knows that his role is to be a writer. "Heaney recognizes that his skill with a pen is comparable to that of his forefathers with a spade" (Mcintyre 44-45). He also acknowledges the skill and ability that his father and grandfather have. This is evident in "By god, the old man could handle a spade. Just like his old man" (15-16). Heaney's expression in this statement reveals to readers a level of admiration that comes about when one has witnessed a level of skill like this one. .
"Man and nature" is an essential theme. In the poem, the narrator looks back with affection on his early encounters with the natural world. He feels rooted in the earth of the potato fields and peat bogs.
