Analysis Of Randall Jarrell's Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner

Randall Jarrell surfaced as an influential World War II poet in 1945. He primarily focused on the psychological and emotional struggles that a young soldier must endure to ensure discipline, adherence, and unshaken loyalty in the demanding and gruesome atmosphere of war. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1942, but soon flunked out and became a control tower operator for the Army (Burt). While in this position he gained most of his insight for his works allowing his wartime experience to augment the veracity of his poems. Randall Jarrell’s early works; “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, “Losses”, and “Gunner” focus on the overwhelming entities that war has on a human being specifically focusing on a maternal figure, an innocent youth, psychological

death, and a moment of rebirth.
Carl Jung, a highly respectable psychologist, contends that archetypes are embedded into the “collective unconscious” of mankind. The “collective unconscious” is the realm of the archetypes and where irrationality proceeds. Universal ‘thought-forms’ at this point which exist in the subconscious of every individual and is recreated in literary works and other various forms of art (Casement). Jarrell, does just this as he focuses specifically on a maternal figure. The great mother figure embodies a sense of devoutness, nourishment, guidance, security, and signifies one’s ability to experience such a profound, unbounding love (Big Ideas Simply Explained" The Psychology Book). The love a mother has for her child sees no limits, where life or death is not a concern. A soldier must embody the same profound feeling for his fellow brothers, freedom, and his country. The bound a mother and child share is considered love; the bound a soldier has is considered his duty. James McLaughlin, a United States soldier, stated “…I learned that soldiers will put their problems, their frustrations, and their issues aside and execute the impossible, day in and day out. These men didn’t do these things because they wanted to – they did it because it was the job, and that was it. And duty is just that – mission first, self second (Garrison).” They must part with their familiarity and allow their military branch to provide them with the essential needed for them to thrive. The theoretical contributions of Jung and the focus of Randall Jarrell allows me to complete a Jungian analysis of Jarrell’s works.
The turret, represented in the “Death of the Ball Turret” denotes a motherly figure in the context of security. The soldier finds himself “hunched in its belly (Klinkowitz and Wallace)” for haven; just as a fetus in a mother’s uterus. The term “hunched (Klinkowitz and Wallace)” refers to the fetal position one obtains throughout utero. Jarrell personifies the turret allowing it to become a place for refuge holding the delicacy of human life. In “Losses”, the maternal figure becomes the hometown that the young, high school graduates came from. The boys were fresh out of high school with a lack of familiarity with the cruelty of the world. The references made to “high school (Jarrell, Poem Hunter; Losses)” and “folks (Jarrell, Poem Hunter; Losses)” within the poem allow the boys to retain a small sense of security and familiarity in the war. The boys were hanging on to the last bit of innocence they had left when he states, “We died on the wrong page of the almanac, Scattered on the mountains fifty miles away; Diving on haystacks, fighting with a friend, We blazed up lines we never saw.” In “Gunner”, the maternal figure is symbolized as the soldier’s cat and wife. When two join the sacred bond of marriage, the wife takes on the maternal role that the man’s mother once held. The soldier within this poem presents resentment toward the army when he states, “Did they send me away from my cat and my wife (Jarrell, Poem Hunter; Gunner).” The resentment witnessed would be comparable to any soldier in reality that was faced with separation from their comfort source. The love this soldier has for his wife and cat present to be greater than what he has from his country.
The innocent youth, also known as the divine child, is inexperienced, having many weaknesses, and often seeks safety with others. He or she shows a great amount of trust in other individuals placing their lives relentlessly in the fate of another, which signifies their innocence and vulnerability (Big Ideas Simply Explained" The Psychology Book). All soldiers can be viewed as an innocent youth as they enter the war or armed forces, but experience a coming of age moment as they experience the war. The innocent’s greatest strength comes from their trust and eternal optimism, which are coincidently the identical strengths of a soldier with their trust in their companions and the optimism for greater good. They experience sacrifices of various assortments all throughout their journey soldier hood; McLaughlin confirms this when he states, “...it goes beyond even the hazardous situations soldiers get put in to. It’s 12-month deployments. It’s sitting in a fighting position in a soaked uniform, staring in to the night. It’s time away from families, friends, and comforts. It’s a long road march, cold food, and no showers. It’s pain, it’s fatigue, and it’s frustration. And, most of all, it’s knowing all of these things, and doing it day after day. That’s a true sacrifice, and that is at the very heart of serving (Garrison).”
“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” represents an innocent youth symbolically as a mother giving birth to her child. An infant is the precise definition of innocence; they are freshly exposed to a world with no intentions, motives, or experiences to tint their fresh souls. “Losses” represents it as high school students that have been never been exposed to the grotesqueness of the outer world. They have been protected and censored by the surrounding of the small hometown that they once lived, their families, and their school. Primarily when attention is focused on a small town, one assumes that they have remained faithful to old time morals and resisted the conformity that has taken hold of the larger cities. Small towns are stilled consider wholesome and pure. The innocence in “Gunner” is seen when he states. “… How easy it was to die! (Jarrell, Poem Hunter; Gunner)” the soldier lost his innocence when he experienced death first hand. He later describes “palms (Jarrell, Poem Hunter; Gunner)” and “sand (Jarrell, Poem Hunter; Gunner)” that represents a sense of tranquility and youthfulness.
Each individual must experience a psychological death in their transition from civilian to soldier. This symbolic death allows them to replace their individuality with a sense of brotherhood and unity. One must be entirely shattered and rebuild to become devout to someone other than themselves and experience a point of all time low. The army places great emphasis of achieving this, to ensure unbreakable compliance and uniform behavior. The true death appears when one enters combat, placing everything on the line, just as one places their name on a monetary check. The soldiers are committing themselves entirely, while waging their physical and psychological safety (Grossman and Siddle). Although each soldier within Jarrell’s work experience a moment of physical death, he uniquely identifies each of their physical deaths with an equivalent and intensified psychological death.
“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” represents the psychological death as a “state (Klinkowitz and Wallace).” The specific state symbolizes the moment of transition for a soldier, at this point he is completely subservient to the war. Within this poem, he states, “From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State (Klinkowitz and Wallace),” which is comparable to depression; slowly losing oneself. However in, “Losses”, the moment of death is represented by an unfamiliar death accompanied with a loss of virtue within the boys. He states, “(When we left high school nothing else had died” “For us to figure we had died like.) (Jarrell, Poem Hunter; Losses)”This quotes defines the goodness of the boys and the harsh images that is now reality. The young boys thought that the routine crashes once experienced in training had prepared them to the utmost extent, but they were quickly realizing that the death that was occurring presently was incomparable. This is confirmed when he states, “It was not dying: we had died before” “In the routine crashes—and our fields (Jarrell, Poem Hunter; Losses).” Within this poem the death symbolizes the boy’s transition to men and the acquainting with grotesque obsolete of war. Throughout, “Gunner”, the psychological death is represented is a presumed stage of sleep when he states, “Did I snore, all still and grey in the turret (Jarrell, Poem Hunter; Gunner).” The death is presented so calm and natural that one cannot even distinguish it from reality or dream state. The death the soldiers endure is subtle to themselves; they are unaware of the uniform person they become. The subtlety of the transition is a foolproof way to avoid resistance; if one is aware, resistance is likely to occur.
After a soldier experiences a literary death; they experience a drastic moment of rebirth. A literary rebirth is assembled of recollections and contests; where one holds the memories of the struggles and the difficulties of their own physical confinement and growth, corresponding with the challenge of the indefinite. A rebirth can be witnessed as dreams, waking idiosyncratic experiences, or a diminutive period where the emotion of rebirth is felt powerfully that results in psychological growth. This intense emotional moment could also be referred to as a moment of self-realization; one is able to connect to themselves spiritually without any interference (Big Ideas Simply Explained" The Psychology Book). The rebirth that a soldier undergoes is evidence of one’s complete compliance and dedication to one’s country.
The rebirth within “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” is represented as a dream that in context represents a soldier’s physical death and awakening into the afterlife.

This is witnessed when he states, “I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters (Klinkowitz and Wallace).” Symbolically this situation represents a soldier’s transition from civilian life to life in arms. The rebirth of the soldiers, in “Losses”, is presented in the statement, “In our new planes, with our new crews… (Jarrell, Poem Hunter; Losses)” With this statement the boys have awoken to find themselves in complete new surroundings. The new surroundings that they describe could be seen as one describes a place of existence after death or even as that of a person awakening from a coma state. Both of these situations are considered rebirths; the place of existence after death is entirely new and the awakening is surrounding of unfamiliarity where both allow for psychological growth within an individual. In “Gunner”, Jarrell states, “To a doctor who poked me and counted my teeth (Jarrell, Poem Hunter; Gunner),” where the situation mocks that of a delivery room and birth of a child. This exact moment is literally seen as the soldiers’ physical death, but Jarrell gives it a much meaning. The soldier finds himself being examined by a doctor, in an out of body experience, as he nears his transition to the life of a soldier. Ones’ initial entrance into the world is the precise moment of birth and ones’ transition into the armed forces is a rebirth into a new societal realm. Both in which embody specific developments of morality, personal significance, and

control.
Surrounding the time of war literature has incorporated influential components of the overwhelming entities that war has on a human being to exemplify the destructive effects both physiologically and psychologically. Everyone is not aware of the sacrifices that soldier makes to ensure the nations’ freedom and security; failing to identify the individuality of each. Jarrell identities the individuality possessed by each soldier, recognizing who they were before their commitment of duty and subservience. He witnessed the entry of children, parents, brothers, and friends willing to give it all without recognition. Jarrell brings awareness through this specifically focusing on a great mother, divine youth, psychological death, and a moment of rebirth to emphasize characteristics of a soldier and convey his situational view. The experience he gained throughout his active duty allowed him to experience and witness the brutal, unbiased effects and how intimately they influenced each soldier.