In the poem August 6, 1945, the poet Alison Fell used many different language techniques in abundance to reveal her purpose and ideas. Fell used language features such as similes, metaphors, assonances and sibilance to show her thoughts through three points-of-views: through the bombers around the time of impact, a victim of the nuclear bomb immediately after impact, and the bomber’s nightmares of the devastation he had caused. The first two stanzas tell a short perspective of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets Jr., just before and just after dropping the bomb on Hiroshima. It tells what seems like the nuclear bomb what somewhat something good, happy, and exciting. Fell’s purpose for that section is to give the reader and the audience a false …show more content…
sense of what is right and true, as she will contradict this first section later on. In the poem the simile “the whole blooming sky went up like an apricot ice” is used. Not often has a weapon of mass destruction been compared with a delicious dessert. This language feature gives the reader a feeling that the nuclear bombing was not such a bad event, and could merely be relatable to something as delightful as ice-cream. Fell also used the line “Later he will laugh and tremble at such a surrender, for the eye of his belly saw Marilyn’s skirts fly over her head forever”. Metaphor was use to give the image of the huge mushroom cloud to be Marilyn Monroe’s skirt blowing over her head as she walked over an air vent. Monroe was hugely popular back in the day and was commonly viewed as a sex symbol. It was a pretty pleasant imagery, and gives the reader the view of something beautiful and elegant. To emphasise some of imagery, sibilance was used with words like “such”, “surrender”, “saw”, and “skirt”. Nowadays, many military activities have been altered for the media and the public. Many key details could be missed out and euphemisms could be used to make something sound better than what it really is. False images, like apricot ice and Marilyn Monroe, could be used to cover up the horror and monstrosity behind the scenes. The second section of the poem illustrates what a little girl could have witnessed and experienced during the atomic explosion.
The idea that the audience picks up is the sickening horror that could only be shown through imagery or an actual image. The fourth stanza describes the effects of the bomb on the girl in gruesome detail and plenty of language features. “Later she will walk the dust, a scarlet girl with her whole stripped skin at her heel, stuck like an old shoe sole or mermaid’s tail”. Simile is used once more to give a shocking image of peeling red skin, being dragged across dust and ash. Assonance is use for “old” and “sole”, and “mermaid’s tail” to really focus on the image being transmitted across to the reader. Specific diction was use to select word like “scarlet” to really give a vivid sight that we could all imagine. This perfectly contradicts what was in the first section, where a pleasant sight could make a 180 and turn south really quick. This flows nicely from the relevance of the first section, where Fell actually shows us what the government and the military could really be hiding from …show more content…
us. The final section of the poem tells of the lasting mental effects on the pilot after slaughtering hundreds of thousands of innocent people.
“Later in dreams he will look down shrieking and see ladybirds ladybirds.” The purpose of this passage is to finalise how horrible nuclear warfare is. Assonance is used in “dreams”, “shrieking” and “see” to put emphasis on some of the nouns and verbs for how it had impacted the pilot. The repetition of “ladybirds” focuses on the possible image that the pilot saw: “scarlet” red bodies with “black ash”, the colours of a ladybird. As well as that, “ladybird ladybird” is also a reference to a grim English nursery rhyme, and it goes “ladybird ladybird fly away home, your house is on fire and your children are gone”. The rhyme is incredibly dark, and somehow very relevant and appropriate in the context of nuclear bombs. In the previous section, there was a line “... she will complain ‘Mother you are late, so late’”, and that ties in with the “ladybird ladybird” nursery rhyme how the “Mother” the girl is referring to is in place of the ladybird, but unfortunately didn’t “fly away home” quick enough - perhaps she was caught in the nuclear explosion as well - and now her “children are gone” for real. Maybe this is the reason why military activities are sugar coated before they get exposed to the public. Horrors like this is incredibly bad for one’s mental health, as Fell showed us through the pilot’s dreams, and it is best if we try and
not to think about it too much. It’s like what it actually in our McDonald’s Big Macs: it tastes alright, but you really don’t want to know what is actually in that burger. They say that it is 100% grass fed beef, but is it? August 6, 1945 really goes the distance to tell us about the horrendousness of the Hiroshima bombing of World War Two, and Alison Fell used a remarkable list of language features to help transmit her point across the her audience. Fell made us think twice about how horrible nuclear war is and what could really goes on behind the closed doors of the government, however, every time you think of the possible inhumanity that happens in a far away land, go and ask yourself one question: Do I really want to know?
Whitney Battle-Baptiste, the author of Black Feminist Archaeology creates the framework of this book because as a Black woman who is interested in race, gender, and cultural views, believes that too often in mainstream archaeological theory, Black culture and the experiences of Black women and our families are overlooked and dismissed. Dr. Baptiste states her explanation on how joining Black Feminist Theory and archaeology in her projects provides a way to open a discussion between archaeologists, which is her intent. It also shows that “when archaeologists critically engage with a dialogue about the intersectionality of race and gender, we begin to see the deeper forms of oppression and how they affect the lives of marginalized populations.”.
The females begin responding “stiffly” rather than “quietly”(7) as before. This adjective usage serves to support the speech even more by allowing readers to see the progression from silence to a bold rebellion in the women regarding their husbands, for “by hiding the canary Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are also going against their husbands” (Bee2). Indeed, this act was the major act of defiance that secured the women’s strengthened devotions to each other rather than their husbands. Peters especially undergoes a drastic transformation when she eventually joins in as “support of her fellow oppressed women” (Block B 1). When, at the climax of the story, the bird is hidden from the men in the sentimental tin box, Glaspell exhibits the tension with the selection of detail. She chooses to focus on the clammy hands of Mrs. Peters as she stuffs the tin away and the quivering voice of Mrs. Hale as she denies knowing any information about the crime. The descriptions of the seemingly miniscule and weakening objects around her house match the “quiet desperation” (Schotland 3) Foster repressed until it overflowed the night before. Considering that the adjectives show how burdensome it is for the women to conceal the evidence, it truly demonstrates how strong the relationships between them has grown based
In the first two lines, an aural image is employed to indicate a never-ending anger in the girl's father. Dawe uses onomatopoeia to create a disturbing and upsetting description of his enraged "buzz-saw whine." An annoying, upsetting sound, it gives the impression of lasting ceaselessly. His anger "rose /murderously in his throat." Because "murderously" begins on a new line, a greater emphasis is placed on it and its evil and destructive connotations. An image of a growling lion stalking its prey is evoked in the reader, as it threateningly snarls from its throat. The girl is terrified as it preys on her persistently "throughout the night." Furthermore, because there is no punctuation, these few lines are without a rest, and when reading out aloud, they cause breathlessness. This suggests that the father's "righteous" fury is ceaseless and suffocating the girl.
The birds show symbolism in more than one way throughout the text. As the soldiers are travelling from all over the world to fight for their countries in the war, the birds are similarly migrating for the change of seasons. The birds however, will all be returning, and many of the soldiers will never return home again. This is a very powerful message, which helps the reader to understand the loss and sorrow that is experienced through war.
One of the most significant details is the difference in imagery when referring to the airport and the bird. At the beginning of the story, “This place of utter anonymity, impersonality. This place of randomness. Emptiness” (517) is referred. Suddenly the focus switches from the airport to the “improbable and heartrending little musical trill” (517) coming from the bird. The airport represents a manifestation of the everyday monotonous routine of life. It is boring and
The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.
I think the canary symbolized Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Hale describes her; "She -- come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself - real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and - fluttery. How - she - did - change"; and like a bird, Mrs. Wright even sang in a choir. But after she got married, every thing stopped. She didn't sing anymore or attend social functions. Like a bird, her house became her cage. The only happiness that she appears to have is with this bird. The bird probably sang when she could not. He was probably a companion to her, she had no children. And like her, he was also caged. Because we do not know, we can only guess that her husband killed her bird. If he killed the bird then he would have killed the only thing that was important to her. He killed her once when he married her and caged her in that house, and he killed her again when he destroyed her bird. "No,. Wright wouldn't like the bird - a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too." When Mrs. Wright was used to its singing and her world became quiet again, it was too much for her take.
The story is about a 10-year-old Jewish boy’s journey escaping from an orphanage to find his parents. The author “Morris Gleitzman” uses different figurative language like personification and onomatopoeia to create a mood and a better image in the reader’s mind. Figurative language is a language that’s used by authors to create a special effect in the novel to express phrases that don't mean as they first appear to mean. Examples of figurative languages are similes, metaphors, onomatopoeias, personifications etc. Personification is when the author gives an unhuman object human characteristics. It has an effect of creating an image in the reader's mind. An example of personification in the novel is: “a few thin needles of daylight are stabbing through the dark.” (p.86) In this sentence, the needles are personified to stab. And it doesn’t mean that thin needles are actually stabbing Felix, but it means that it is almost morning and the light is shining through the curtains like a thin needle. As the author used personification in the novel, he also used onomatopoeia to create a mood. Onomatopoeia is when the author expresses sounds using words like: Boom, Bam etc. An example of onomatopoeia in the novel is: “Bang, the bedroom door is kicked open.” In this sentence, the example of onomatopoeia is “bang.” Onomatopoeia is used here by the author is because the author wants to create a mood to the story. The mood of being nervous and worried. The author used both personification and onomatopoeia in the novel to create an image in the reader’s mind and to create a
Bird usually portrays an image of bad luck that follows afterwards and in this novel, that is. the beginning of all the bad events that occur in the rest of the novel. It all started when Margaret Laurence introduced the life of Vanessa MacLeod. protagonist of the story, also known as the granddaughter of a calm and intelligent woman. I am a woman.
The imagery of the war creates a strong picture in the reader's mind. “Men lie, covering dirt”, this line of poetry allows the readers to go into the war and picture the events going on. Evergreen much like Wilfred Owen writes with such strong imagery to allow the reader to explore the poem with all five senses, in doing so the readers will get to hear, see, taste, feel,
"A man wading lost fields breaks the pane of flood" which starts the second section gives the effect of pain and hurt. The man survives by going along with nature and resisting it, but it also gives the effect of danger at the same time. " Like a cut swaying" carries on the effect of being deliberate, sharp and precise and "it's red spots" and "his hands grub" continues with the theme of the animal sort of.
In Birdsong, Faulks considers the idea of the War as an ‘exploration of how far men can be degraded’ in terms of the impact that war had upon the individual characters, resulting in dehumanisation. The main feature of being human is individuality. During his three-day-rest, the character Jack reflects that each soldier had the potential to be an individual, but because of the ‘shadow of what awaited them, [they] were interchangeable’ which is an allusion towards the politics of the War; the men were simply seen as statistics. The men search for a fate within the War, demonstrated when Stephen plays cards with the men and claims that Weir would rather have a ‘malign providence than an indifferent one’ which suggests that the men want to feel that someone is planning their future. During a heavy bombardment, Faulks describes that Tipper’s ‘iris lost all light and sense of life’ during his ‘eruption of natural fear’ when the shells land near him. The eyes here are a metaphor for life; it is a human’s eyes which represent individuality and are often described as the window to the soul. Faulks’ description of the loss of light in the eyes suggests that, as a result of the War, Tipper has lost what makes him human. The natural fear and ‘shrill demented sound’ that arises from Tipper is a ‘primitive fear’ which su...
the early days through to the end of the war and explain how the texts
The poem begins with the phrase “eight birds were hatched in one nest” (ln. 1), she relays to the reader that she had eight children born at home. She also states that “four cocks” and “hens the rest” representing that she had four sons and four daughters. During the seventeenth century this was a rare occurrence for a woman to successfully carry and give birth to eight children, and for all of them to live into adulthood (Mlinko 127). Due to the harsh circumstances of life during this time most children did not survive to reach their first birthday, and childbirth was considered a dangerous event for a woman to go through. Many woman and infants died during childbirth due to complications that in today’s world are easily taken care of. She describes the love, care, and protection she gave them by using the terms “soft and warm,” and “with my wings kept off harm” (ln. 58). Bradstreet also uses the terms “take flight” to describe when her children left home, and “farewell, my birds”(ln. 93) when she knew her time on earth would end. This poem is also written as a couplet, or two line, Rhyme Scheme with the patterns of (AA, BB, CC, & DD). This rhyme scheme is one of the easiest to read in poetry because it flows easily like the lyrics of a
‘The Falling Soldier’ is one of many poems by Duffy which deals with the subject of human mortality. Duffy expresses what could have been over a harsh reality; this is characteristic of her as also seen in ‘Last Post’ and ‘Passing Bells’ which both seem to be largely influenced by poet peer Wilfred Owen’s personal experiences of war. In the ‘The Falling Soldier’ Duffy paradoxically captures the essence of Robert Capa’s famous photograph of a man falling after being shot during the Spanish Civil War (1936). She employs the form of an impersonal narrative voice, using second person to question the possibilities, to explore the tragic and cyclical nature of war. The futile reality of war contrasts to her central theme in ‘The Bees’ anthology of bees symbolising the grace left in humanity.