Comparing Flames And Dangling Wire By Robert Gray

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We are all connected by universal empathy, yet separated by unique personal discoveries. Not until we lose sight of conventional shores by discovering our inner darkness, do we find the courage to break free of the façade society has created. “North Coast Town” and “Flames and Dangling Wire” by Robert Gray question the cultural impact of perceived “progress”, while Roald Dahl’s post WW2 short story “Genesis and Catastrophe” forces us to rediscover our inner darkness, re-evaluate our personal morals and our inner strength to challenge society and make our own discoveries. “Flames and Dangling Wire” is a didactic poem in which Gray discovers and warns the reader about the consequences of our modern love of materialism. In this cultural decay, Gray uses a recurring motif …show more content…

As external onlookers, we are influenced by contextual knowledge of what this “perfectly normal baby” achieves when he grows up. Through confessional dialogue, we discover the father’s disappointment of his small and weak child as he questions “why can’t they be better specimens” contrasted to the mother’s desperation for her “strong and healthy” child to live. As we progress though this 1st person reflective narrative, we are pulled into the conundrum of what we believe the baby’s fate should be; on one side he is a child – an innocent baby and on the other side he is a dictator deciding life and death of millions of people. Through the oxymoron in which the mother experiences a “holy terror” we get a concise description of conflicting emotions at play. This story forces us to drop our facade and recognise how we can feel given certain circumstances. Our individual interpretations insists our selfishness, “disguised” as humanity should prevail and this baby should be stopped before he can unleash his evil across Europe. Is one baby worth more? Or should he be sacrificed to save millions of

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