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The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner Analysis

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In simply five lines, Randall Jarrel manages to write about the major issues of the time within his poem, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner.” Written in 1945, the same year World War II concluded, the first thought on everyones minds was dealing with the repercussions of a major war. With over 60 million dead, the world was a completely different place. During the war, people cared less about the “purity” of life and rather focused on “me vs. him.” Consequently, soldiers simply became just numbers fighting for their country rather then individuals. Therefore, in Jarrel’s poem, he focuses on the ideas of birth, war, and death. In the 1940’s many soldiers that went to fight were 18 years of
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Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields”, Ernst Junger’s Storm of Steel, and Lewis Milestone’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” present different accounts of World War I. McCrae displays the sorrow of losing comrades while exhorting the public to continue to fight in memory of those who died. Junger writes a gripping account of his experience as a fearless young man in the war. “All Quiet on the Western Front” combines both the sorrow of McCrae’s poem with Junger’s fearless attitude to deliver a war story reminiscent of the personalities of the soldiers. All three works manipulate the use of syntax to evoke a sense of remorse as their audiences recognize the reality of death that manifests in war. McCrae employs syntax to display remorse through his stylization and organization

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Paul Baumer represents the soldiers as the “Lost Generation” (Remarque 105). World War I turned a generation of young men, ready to attack life with full force into a generation of war-torn, and greatly aged, men. The war has aged them, both physically and especially mentally. The soldiers constantly discuss how they are no longer “youth” anymore, but actually old men of nineteen.

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Both Ted Hughes and Wilfred Owen present war in their poems “Bayonet Charge” and “Exposure”, respectively, as terrifying experiences, repeatedly mentioning the honest pointlessness of the entire ordeal to enhance the futility of the soldiers' deaths. Hughes’ “Bayonet Charge” focuses on one person's emotional struggle with their actions, displaying the disorientating and dehumanising qualities of war. Owen’s “Exposure”, on the other hand, depicts the impacts of war on the protagonists' nation, displaying the monotonous and unending futility of the situation by depicting the fate of soldiers who perished from hypothermia, exposed to the horrific conditions of open trench warfare before dawn. The use of third-person singular pronouns in “Bayonet

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A Dead Man’s Mission War is a harsh element to endure, especially when your life you can expect your life to be over quick if you land the job of the ball turret gunner. Randall Jarrell wrote The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner is with he addresses a certain roll on a bomber plane that was known to be the deadliest place to be. The position was the ball turret gunner, this is a bubble on the bottom of a bomber plane where a man would hang upside down with a turret gun ready to shoot down any enemy planes trying to shoot down the bomber plane. The problem with this is being upside causes blood to flow to the head with usually lead to fainting. Jarrell during WWII enlisted in the Air Force and served a brief time as a pilot, the rest of the time during the war he trained men to fly the bomber planes.

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Once the soldiers were made aware of the realities of war they felt disconnected from their old life and the life they would have had. Paul describes this loss of feeling by saying “We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces.” (Remarque 87).

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Only the facts are real and important for us. And good boots are scarce”. As you can see, instead of feeling sad for there friend who is about to die, they keep a lookout over him so that they can make sure they get his boots, but they do need them, war is a harsh reality. On page 20 it talks their lives “All of the older men are linked up with their previous life. They have wives, children, occupation, interests, they have a background that is so strong that the war cannot obliterate it.

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War carries important morals that heighten the perspective of men and women on their nation, but it also entails many acts and experiences that leave lasting effects on their emotional and physical state. Throughout the following texts, Paul Baumer, the dead soldiers, and Kiowa’s comrades all sustain losses that compel them to persevere and fight harder. All Quiet on the Western Front, Poetry of the Lost Generation, and an excerpt from In the Field all connect to the recurring theme, horrors of war, that soldiers face everyday on the front line through the continuous battle. War involves gruesome battles, many of which lead to death, but these events forever affect the soldier’s mind and body. In All Quiet on the Western Front, men experience horrific sights, or horrors of war, through the depiction of the terrain, death, and the

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The obligation a citizen feels to serve their country is a common sentiment. Despite this presumed duty resulting in countless deaths of men and women, many still make the brave decision to enlist themselves during a war. This can be attributed to how those who serve their country’s military are touted as courageous, selfless and heroic. Timothy Findley’s “War” follows the tragic story of a young boy named Neil growing up during World War II. Neil finds himself in a difficult situation upon learning that his father has enlisted himself in the army.

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Throughout the ages, wars have wreaked havoc and caused great destruction that lead to the loss of millions of lives. However, wars also have an immensely destructive effect on the individual soldier. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, one is able to see exactly to what extent soldiers suffered during World War 1 as well as the effect that war had on them. In this essay I will explain the effect that war has on young soldiers by referring to the loss of innocence of young soldiers, the disillusionment of the soldiers and the debasement of soldiers to animalistic men. Many soldiers entered World War 1 as innocent young boys, but as they experienced the full effect of the war they consequently lost their innocence.

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By manipulating the war setting and language of the novel Heller is able to depict society as dark and twisted. Heller demonstrates his thoughts of society through the depicted war. In the novel, the loss of personal identity in the soldiers lives. Furthermore, The idea is that supports how much value is placed upon a human life and shows the evils and cruelty of war is related The Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell, in which a soldier who spends his entire life in war only to die the same position he came into the war “fetal” state; just to be disregarded and buried in a whole.

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Basically everything in a war could look beautiful in humans eyes, but every soldier hates war at the same time. The truth reached by the reader from this contrast is that why some might like going to war and what makes soldiers to keep going in

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Comparative Essay How can different perceptions about one topic be expressed in poetry? The main theme that the two sets of poems convey is war, but it’s expressed in different point of views through the use of diction that builds tone. The tones of these poems play a big role in conveying the differences between the different eras that these poems are written in, and shows how societies have changed from the Victorian era till the time of World War I. The diction and tone in Borden and Owen’s poems is so much different than the diction and tone in Lovelace and Tennyson’s poems due to different perspectives and point of views. In all four poems the main idea is war, but each set conveys a perspective of war, a positive perspective

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Bruce Dawe ultimately exposes the brutal hopelessness of soldiers caught up in foreign conflicts and its impact on family and friends. The poem, Weapons Training, is an entailment of a sergeant desensitising a

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The poem aims to glorify soldiers and certain aspects of war, it goes on to prove that in reality there really isn 't good vs bad on the battlefield, it 's just a man who "sees his children smile at him, he hears the bugle call, And only death can stop him now—he 's fighting for them all.", and this is our hidden meaning.

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As tempting as it is to admire the aura of Achilles as a great war hero, his character flaws, as outlined throughout The Iliad, prove his actions to be no more heroic than they are merciless acts of rage. Driven primarily by personal glory, Achilles will do anything for his name to be remembered through time. As great as he is on the battlefield, he ultimately fails as a hero on the grounds of poor morality, dishonourable behaviour, and a severe insensitivity towards his love for Patroclus. Achilles lead a life of malicious and violent behaviour, revealing little to no moral conduct. The death of his lover Patroclus unleashed a rage that provoked perhaps the most cruel of all his mean spirited endeavours, the mutilation of Hectors body and

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