Explication of “The Minefield” by Diane Thiel
The Minefield is a poem written by Diane Thiel in 2000. It speaks about the man who had a traumatic war experience as a teenager – the boy saw how his friend was killed by a mine. This stress affects his adult life and his family. The poem consists of three uneven stanzas. It is a blank verse with a grim, depressive mood. It is caused both by the mention of the teenager’s death and the fact this event made the man to be violent with his family, like if the war created new victims years after its ending. The mood is created with the aid of poem’s structure and such poetic techniques as an imagery, metaphors, diction and similes.
The poem unites past and present; the second short stanza is used as…show more content… The metaphor (that can have a sing of connotation) “he brought them with him – the minefields” (Thiel 425, l. 12) demonstrated the friend’s death had a severe impact on the man’s mental health. At least, the author linked this event to the father’s violence and tempests of anger. The negative mood is created with the mention of bruises on hands and things the man threw against the wall. The metaphor (simile) “a melon, once, opened like a head” (Thiel 425, l. 18) highlights family’s concerns about the level of father’s rage and their own safety. While the author mentioned only bruises as people’s traumas, it was obvious there was a high risk that someone’s had would replace the melon after an incautious action or word. The impression became worse as the author mentions the father had good intentions in the 19th line. Readers have a bad feeling as they see the man can be a good person inside, but make his family suffer because of the past traumatic experience.
The Minefield has a negative mood as it shows how horrible events from the past can affect future lives of participants and their surroundings. The author showed the image of the minefield developed for the character’s family because of his posttraumatic stress. “Anything might explode at any time” (Thiel 425, l. 20), this condition was true for two boys from the past and the survived teenager transferred it to his family. The situation creates a grim mood as readers understand people can be victims of an event that happened before their birth or on the other
