Ball Turret Gunner

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"The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" by Randell Jarrell is up to interpretation, but it carries the same dark tone as "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe. "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" has to be carefully picked apart to grasp its dark tone. It touches on the feelings one feels at war and in death. Whilst "The Cask of Amontillado" carries an ironic tone with it.
"The Cask of Amontillado" starts with an alluding back story and a prologue. Poe’s word choice like borne, utterance, and vowed, makes the dark tone come together. The story also has a revengeful attitude, Montresor is seeking vengeance against Fortunato. While "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" starts with a metaphor for a mother and her fetus. The speaker's word choice like nightmare died and hunched makes the dark sorrowful tone come through.
The speaker in "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" compares war to being a fetus in a mother's womb. The speaker uses metaphors like “hunched in its belly”, “from my mother's sleep”, and “loosed from its dream of life” to convey the idea that a turret gunner is like a mother and her unborn baby. At the very end of the poem the speaker says, “they washed me out of the turret with a hose”. If the speaker is comparing a mom and her fetus this is a metaphor …show more content…
the setting is in the catacombs, the tone is dark. The catacombs are described as having mold in the walls, damp, and dark. A catacomb is “an underground cemetery, especially one consisting of tunnels and rooms with recesses dug out for coffins and tombs.” While "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" setting is in war specifically in a plane as stated in “Six miles from earth”. The turret gunner sits inside a dome and shoots. He sits in such a way that he looks like a fetus. In both settings, characters are variable and are in fighting situations. There is an obvious reason of why the setting would affect the

Randall Jarrell's The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner

dehumanize many individuals who were involved. Jarrell believed that the soldiers fighting in the war were treated like pawns who live solely for killing and being killed themselves. Jarrell’s “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” is a short poem about the death of a soldier in a ball turret, however, the poem uses figurative language most of the time, therefore, the poem can be quite cryptic and leaves the reader to discern what Jarrell may have wanted to interpret. One of many ideas that arises…

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they desire. Next, in The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner, it stands natural for a Turret Gunner to be replaces after one is deceased. When a Turret Gunner has done his job and fulfilled his duty as a soldier for his country, he is not rewarded nor is he remembered as an individual. There is no proper burial, ceremony or memorial service for those who have died for their country as a Turret Gunner. The poem illustrates the inner thoughts of a Turret Gunner and he even knows that once he is dead that…

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Justin Belfiore Pg.517 The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner My personal opinion is i disliked analyzing this poem heavily, Its crafted well and is a nice metaphor for what is being described but it lacked a deep consciousness that made me hesitate to find what the meaning mister Jarrell was trying to describe. In essence its a seed inside a soft plum and im into coconuts. It was to easy to crack. He implies he is being forcefully taken from his home by the goverment becuase of the draft during…

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