Month: April 2015

1. Vaudevue’s death has been set in the first stanza by creating a lonely atmosphere. The poet has left this girl soldier by herself in the middle of no where buy the only thing is around is a round flat stone. ” She is alone, at midnight in the moonlight”. This quotation makes the reader think why she is alone in the darkness by herself. Also the word ‘alone’ is repeated twice getting us concerned and that the girl is insecure, not safe and vulnerable. The language used in the first stanza gives us the sense of sadness and something terrible has just happened especially because she on a battlefield.

2. A clue that was given to the reader regarding the future was weapon of sort that is used in warfare called M.L.5. We are given the impression that M.L.5 is a sort of pill, tablet or medicine and it makes people lose their memory. In addition this weapon is described as ‘human exterminator’ which means is can potentially kill or end hundreds/thousands of peoples lives by losing their memory. The loss of memory means humans will not remember anything in their past and possible good memories they had.

3. One technique that was used in the poem was the repetition of the word ‘ominous’ and it is used to describe the lake. When you have a ominous feeling it means you have the impression that something bad is going to happen. So when the poet describes the lake in an ominous way and that Vaudevue is near by, an horrific event is going to happen. Another technique used is alliteration was ‘swiftly severing’ this means is slowly/smoothing cut something off. At this point the girl soldier is in an icy-lake and she has dived in and slowly drowning herself.

This poem was a response to the terrorist event 9/11. The poet is confused, insecure and no trust is portrayed to the reader. Throughout the poem the noun and the verb constantly changes. When the poet changes the noun to describe the figure standing outside the door which appear to be negative then positive for example the physical appearance of the figure to look like a terrorist. This is a very harsh word to apply to a person, it can also be very discriminating and racist. In addition the recent event of 9/11 means the word terrorist creates controversy, especially towards Arab and Islamic people. Then there is a contrast in the meaning of the verb is adjusted to freedom fighter which is someone who fights against an unjust government but this is for a good reason. The development of the poem carries on like this the change of nouns from positive to negative. Also the verbs are describing the movement of the figure, normally making them more suspicious, threatening, vulnerable or they are taking protection. As the poem progresses the poet becomes less threatened and more familiar with the person its encountering. The phobia towards Islamic and Arabic people means the poet was like the majority of people at that time, uncomfortable and scared. But as the figure approached her house she mentions ” Is a child who looks like mine”. This transmits a message how people acted after the terrorist attack, doubting and having no trust with the people around them.

In my opinion I think the poet has a Islamic or Arabic background, because these were the people that were demonised and put inferior compared to everyone else, so by saying “Is a child who looks like mine” gives us the impression the child was from those backgrounds. At this point there was a relief from the audience knowing that there was no harm towards the poet. In the next stanza, there’s a description of the child approaching the poet and there was contact between them.

“His hand too steady, his eyes too hard” reflect to the reader that the child was petrified and mentally feeling down. From this quote I get a feeling on how badly the Arabic and Islamic people felt during that period of time, even though they were normal humans and a minority of people portrayed a negative view towards us and also creating a stereotype which can damage peoples emotions.