How do Disabled and An Unknown Girl convey the sense of personal identity?
Our personal identity shapes who we are or shall become, it is how a person sees them self, fitting into their surroundings. Both Owen and Alvi explore the unpredictable personal identity of a person and how it changes their lives for the worse in their poems Disabled and An Unknown Girl. The former poem, filled with pathos, demonstrates a soldier’s joyful life prior to and after WWI where he suffered a devastating tragedy, losing all his limbs, emphasizing his deformed personal identity throughout the poem. The latter, however, depicts a cultural visitor experiencing India in hopes of fulfilling her somewhat incomplete heritage (and thus, personal identity), in which
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This peacock symbolizes how the bird is inviting the poet to a new experience, “I have new brown veins”, a new culture, gradually building up to reform her personal identity; this is reinforced especially as the national bird of India is a peacock, signifying a real, genuine connection between the persona and India. The overall message portrayed is that the persona is trying to grasp on to a NEW personal identity, loathing her current Western one. This ‘need’ for a different personal identity is clearly contrasted by Owen in Disabled where the persona expresses his regret (of joining the war) and animosity towards his new personal identity by opening the poem with a sense of pessimism and depression. This is firstly done through the emotionless verbs such as “sat”, “waiting”, and “shivered” which imply that the man has nothing to look forward to as his manhood, vigor, and dignity have all been robbed of him. In addition, the truncated, broken order of the poem shadows the soldier’s …show more content…
The persona illustrates his former personal identity in Disabled and the persona in An Unknown Girl portrays the breathtaking views around her as she imaginatively experiences India. “And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim”, the persona in Disabled describes; this use of alliteration indicate that the majority of the persona’s identity was made up of his appeal to women. “His face was younger than his youth” reveals a young man’s life with a bright future ahead of him. The sense of a pleasant past is reinforced when “soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers” which emphasises the joyous idea of joining the war, although naïve and fallacious. “He thought of jeweled hilts, for daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes; and care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears; Espirit de corps; and hints for young recruits”. This list of numerous optimistic ambitions, irrelevant to the war itself suggests that the persona was deluded by the glorified image of war. Rather than being aware of the tragic reality, he joined the war selfishly and out of vanity for even “Germans he scarcely thought of”. The persona in An Unknown Girl contributes to the same exciting mood as she exhibits the scenery of India as it becomes a part of her personal identity. “In the evening bazaar, studded with neon” portrays the idea of the persona discovering a new, colourful identity since this is
Nevertheless, in the poem ‘Nesting time’, Stewart interprets a personal experience in first person of the appearance of a bird that lands upon his daughter and forgets the thought of the harsh world. Stewart’s descriptive language repeatedly explains the poem as if seen in his viewpoint, beginning with an interjection, ‘oh’ communicating of his incredulity of an ‘absurd’ bird. Symbolizing the bird with strong coloured imagery its ‘mossy green, sunlit’, described to be bright and joyful, with sweetness shown with the type of bird, ‘honey-eater’, Douglas Stewart takes the time to describe its admiration juxtaposed to the dangerous world surrounding it. While visualizing the birds actions, ‘pick-pick-pick’ of alliteration and repetition of its
Loss is initially explored in the first stanzas of ‘Conscript’ by FA Horn and ‘The Photograph’ by Peter Kocan. Contrasting initial subjects are explored as ‘Conscript’ tells the story of a man enlisted in war, which furthermore teaches him life skills in order for him to advance into a true man, exploring the loss of his identity. This differs to ‘The Photograph’ which explores the loss of a man who was sent to war and tragically killed before experiencing the joys of life. Horn expresses in ‘Conscript’ that metaphorically ‘he’s twice the man he was – a puny chap’ foreshadowing his development into being the man that was sought of him, leaving behind or losing his prior identity. Contrasting to this, Kocan reveals in ‘The Photograph’ loss in a dissimilar way, in which the subject of the poem is identified to have died, with the earlier stanzas of this poem communicating that Jim ‘went to War…’; furthermore stating that he ‘didn’t come back’ with the poet using emotive
Wilfred Owen uses language and poetic devices to evoke sympathy for the soldier in the poem by using in-depth descriptions. An example of this is in the first stanza where the soldier in the poem ‘shivered in his ghastly suit of grey’. The ‘g’ sound in the words ‘ghastly’ and ‘grey’ emphasises the horror of ‘ghastly’ combined with the dreariness of ‘grey’, which are now the two main features of his life. The word ‘ghastly’ shows something that is strange and unnatural. The adjective ‘grey’, which has connotations of bleakness, portrays an image of darkness and monotony. Furthermore, the verb ‘shivered’ shows that he is vulnerable and exposed. In the phrase, ‘Legless, sewn short at elbow’, the sibilance at the end of ‘Legless’, and in ‘sewn short’ tell us that the short-syllable words are ruthlessly to the point, so it emphasises the fact that the soldier has no arms and legs because of his wounds.
The theme of loss is portrayed similarly in the two poems ‘Disabled’ and ‘Out, out-’. Both of these poems are about the protagonist dealing with physical loss as they both experience an accident. Both Wilfred Owen and Robert Frost manage to mesmerize their audience’s attention, and also sympathize for the protagonists’ misfortune. They do this by the use of many literary techniques which are obvious at times, but some are very subtle, such as similes, metaphors, personification, and contrasts.
Human beings have full control over their identities after they have received knowledge and have become shaped from external stimuli. These stimuli include the teaching process of humans which comes through tradition, schooling, and the actions of other humans and the influence of the organisms around them. Andrew Solomon, through “Son,” was able to use his experience of growing up and labeling himself as a gay dyslexic to show how his environment and knowledge had shaped his identity and how it was viewed by others with different identities. In “An Elephant Crackup,” Charles Siebert was able to explain how the other organisms or humans are able to form new identities for elephants over time by shaping them a new environment and having the elephants process it. In “Mind’s Eye,” Oliver Sacks had different case studies of blindness from different people and was able to show how each one experienced their blindness help shape and express their individual identities. The stimuli that becomes processed by a person in the situations, accounts, and studies of these works assist in the role of explaining the formulation of an identity.
Thus, through the initial impression of the man of the bird’s brave and challenging movements by the utilisation of poetic techniques, the reader is able to visualise the bird’s characteristic it inherits and gain a deeper understanding of nature and the impression of humanity distinctively.
I have written Part A inspired by Gwen Harwood's poem Alter Ego from the moment of tension "Who stands beside me still". The story is told from the point of view of a young child like Gwen who has sensed another darker side of herself since she was little. Symbolising the idea of Harwood trying to find a common ground between her and her alter ego which is expressed through the poem. I have shaped the meaning of us all experiencing different uncontrollable sides of ourselves and the notion of us remembering memories accurately for what they were which challenges the perspective that Hardwood adopts in her texts. I have shaped meaning in part A by the title of the story been the moment of tension from Harwood's poem Alter ego.
Wilfred Owen’s poetry effectively conveys his perspectives on human conflict through his experiences during The Great War. Poems such as ‘Futility’ and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ portray these perceptions through the use of poetic techniques, emphasising such conflicts involving himself, other people and nature. These themes are examined in extreme detail, attempting to shape meaning in relation to Owen’s first-hand encounters whilst fighting on the battlefield.
Despite being a very diverse literature genre in terms of influence and inspiration, North American literature encompasses many works that share some very common thematic elements. Though there are several themes shared, one in particular can be found in most any work – the importance of identity. Particularly in some selected pieces yet to be named, identity is a very important element, not only because it is a necessity for a main character in any work of literature, but because these works express ideas about identity as being very individualistic – as opposed to being a mere result of cultural surroundings. Zora Neal Hurtson’s Their
Some believe that birds help express spiritual freedom and psychological liberation with the different colors of birds that are associated with various meanings; specifically the yellow bird means you should keep your guard up. In the novel, The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers, John Bartle becomes guarded and isolated because of his internal battles created by his experiences from war. Bartle struggles with the lack of control he has over the events that happen to him in during his time in the military. He fights with his helplessness when he tries to transition to his lifestyle at home. He also cannot control how he changes as a person. When we think of war we think of the physical damage we see on the exterior but what we cannot see is the psychological damage in the interior of a person.
The poet then presents a scene of patriotic relevance as he describes a scene of a regiment marching into battle with their “flag” and “Eagle with crest of red and gold” (17-18). When people think of flags, they think of patriotism and representing their country. Eagles also symbolize freedom but as readers can witness in the work, the poet makes it seem as if these men were created not to enjoy the gift of life for one moment by him saying “These men were born to drill and die” (19). This comes across to the reader as almost inhumane. Then by illustrating an image of a field of thousands of dead corpses makes any reader wonder why people even go to war. The whole fourth stanza paints a picture of living human being going into a battle with most, if not any, making it out alive. Like stated before, the speaker in the poem builds a case for those people that opposed to war even though the title of the poem might
In the poem ‘Disabled’, poet Wilfred Owen portrays the horrors of war and the brutal aftermath by using powerful imagery, dramatic contrasts of pace and time, overwhelming irony and by creating a strong sense of sympathy for the soldier of this poem. The contrasts between health and illness, life and death feature greatly in the poem; this gives the reader a ‘before and after’ picture of the soldier’s (subject’s) life.
Duffy uses the image, of the “boys”, “kissing photographs from home” along with the repeated lists of either family members, common names, or aspirations in order to create an emotive link between the speaker and reader. Likewise, Owen’s poem examines the affect war has on young men such as himself. Using Hyperbole’s like “all of my dreams” to make the reader compassionate towards the speaker. Owen’s next lines appeal to the reader to reflect on their own experiences by direct address, alliteration, imagery, asking the reader to personally stop telling the lie that are is honorable and noble. Contrastingly, Duffy strongly utilizes repetition to summarize the main theme in her poem. The final two lines are the same as two earlier lines making the reader dwell on why she has made this recurrence. In Duffy’s poem with focuses heavily on the rewinding of time and the changing of history, she repeats this phrase to illustrate the fact that nothing has changed. Both poems are rejections of war propaganda and reflections on how even after the tragedy and sorrow in both poems war are still fought daily and nothing has changed in the
In majority of Owen’s poem, he demonstrates the true image of war and the impact it has on the soldiers rather than masking it with the lies of pride
In both poems Owen shows us the physical effect of war, Wilfred starts the poems showcasing unendurable stress the men were going through. Appalling pictures are created and expressed through similes and metaphors. Owen’s lexical choices link to the semantic field of the archaic which conveys the atavistic effects of war. The men are compared to old beggars, hags, the once young men have been deprived of their youth and turned into old women, the loss of masculinity express the how exhausting and ruthless war was. The men were barely awake from lack of sleep, they “marched in sleep” their once smart uniforms resembling “sacks”. He also expresses how