Importance Of Three Texts In 'The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner'

Through the distress of a single man, Jarrell is able to depict the fears of a lonely soldier in an extremely vulnerable position, and invites us into the heinous reality of war which forces us to question our impressions of soldiers having no fear yet not questioning their bravery. War can produce gruesome situations that can cause even the bravest men to face their fears, but it is how they deal with this fear that is the important part. Ball turret gunners were courageous warriors. They were fully aware of how susceptible to death they were, nevertheless, they would continue to fight time after time. WWII was a dreadful episode in human history that killed millions of people, and its bloodshed is described by the UN Charter as a scourge that “has brought untold sorrow to mankind”. Jarrell had served in the military himself, thus he knew - at least to some extent -

AO4 = relate texts to their social, cultural and historical contexts; explain how texts have been influential and significant to self

There will always be philosophical interpretations that will create universal truths for many generations to come. In addition, these literary works enriches the audiences’ understanding of these texts as supremely important cultural and historical documents, for audiences who embrace their universal truths. Both generational audiences’ spiritual interpretations seemed to have, collectively, developed a text of extraordinary literary works that are overflowing with philosophical and truth-seeking richness.

“It was almost eight years ago that retired corporal Joseph Rustenburg took all the sleeping pills and medication he could get his hands on, drove to a farmer’s field and laid down, hoping for the end, I didn’t understand what was going on with me, and it seemed everything I was doing was hurting people around me, especially Mel,” said Rustenburg” (Tomlinson, 2017),

Throughout history, literature has served as a prominent tool in the examination of social values, ideas, and dreams. In addition, literature has provided a vital connection between historical, social, and political events. Through the incorporation of religious principles and philosophies, writers have discovered a way to portray different time periods, characters, feelings, and most importantly God.

“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell is able to accomplish so many thing with so little lines-mainly through the use of metaphor and diction. It explains the terrors of wars in gruesome detail and explains the ways in which wars, in a sense “breed” and “birth” death. To some, this poem is seen as the ultimate poem of war, and rightly

Death is something that everyone has to look forward to at some point in life, but one is temporarily alive by this idea of the “American dream” they are handed throughout a lifetime. It is not until many are faced with adversity that life is truly noticed. For the gunner this moment comes when he is “six miles from earth” facing enemies that he wakes up for the first time. He is awake due to this being the first time in his life that he is truly separated from that dream. Jarrell uses the second half of line three to describe this idea of the detachment from the normality of everyday life. Jarrell is saying that everyday life is just a dream and one is a zombie, dazed going through the motions of typical life. What Jarrell is saying here is that Americans are born dead due to the life they are brought up in and since they are dead do not get to experience real life. The ball turret gunner only truly “lives” for a little bit due to the changing consequences of war around him. Last line of the poem describes his actual death and how

When Jarrell says the words, "hunched in the belly," the reader gets a very uncomfortable feeling. In line number three the reader gets visual imagery as well as slight tactile imagery. The visual imagery comes when Jarrell says, "Six miles from earth." The reader gets a clear image of something being very high above the ground. When the author says, "loosed from the dream of life," the reader gets a slight feeling of death or a vision of someone dying. The fourth line, "I woke to the black flak and the nightmare fighters," brings the reader visual, auditory and tactile imagery. The reader can picture someone waking up to shrapnel, from an exploding bomb, flying by their head. One can hear the gunfire of the, "nightmare fighters," along with the exploding shells. The reader also gets a tactile image when the author says, "I woke up," because everyone knows what it is like to wake up from a sleep. In the fifth and final line the reader gets a very graphic visual image. The reader can picture someone's body being so destroyed that instead of removing the body from the turret the soldiers must wash it out with a hose.

But, in contrast, the speaker is a dead WW2 soldier who describes how the job of a ball turret gunner is a death sentence. In “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” Jarrell begins the poem with, “From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State, / And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze” (1-2). Jarrell opens the poem by comparing the belly of an American bomber aircraft to that of his mother’s womb. The fact that Jarrell is comparing the belly of an American bomber aircraft to his mother’s womb is quite ironic because he juxtaposes two things where one symbolizes life, and the other symbolizes death. Jarrell continues to convey his theme of death when he describes how the speaker is off the ground and flying. In “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” Jarrell writes, “Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life” (3). Jarrell is foreshadowing the death of the speaker in this line. Jarrell knew that once the speaker was off the ground and in the air, the speaker was on a suicide mission. Most ball turret gunners’ lives in WW2 were short lived. Since they were placed under the belly of the bomber aircraft, if the aircraft was shot down, most planes landed on their bellies, and as a result, the ball turret gunners were killed. In the last lines of Jarrell’s poem, “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” he states, “I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. / When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose” (4-5). Jarrell’s views on death highlight that he is against the unnecessary loss of life. Jarrell is protesting that the job of the ball turret gunner should not have been a job because it was almost guaranteed to be a suicide mission. Jarrell emphasizes his philosophy by including the gruesome visual of people washing out the body of the ball turret gunner with a

Randall Jarrell put much thought into his poem, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, but more specifically into the tone. Tone is the attitude an author has towards his or her subject and it has the power to be bland, or have a true impact on the literary work being presented. Jarrell effectively used imagery and diction to create the attitude he wanted his readers to conclude in their own way.

Thinking about war is a vile image to civilians, but also shallow in knowledge; their conception of war is nothing compared to the horrors that come with the experience of war including what it feels like to have to avoid constant attacks, to have run on minimal food, and to experience death on a daily basis. On the front, soldiers are forced to be on the lookout for random incursions that come their way; it can unexpectedly appear in a variety of deadly forms including shells, gas attacks, open fire, etc. When daylight falls, shells “[boom] through the night like an organ” with a blow so vast that if a soldier were to be hit by “one of those [they’re] killed at sight”; forcing their animal instinct to be awakened which is “far quicker, much more sure” and “less fallible than consciousness” (Remarque 56)(Remarque 59)(Remarque 103).

Chapter six, … Or the Bible, of How to Read Literature Like A Professor (HTRLLAP) asserts that connect all of the dots is vital, and how a story about the loss of innocence always hit so hard because they are final. The two biggest points of this chapter, though, are how not all uses of religion are straight-forward, how some are there just to illustrate a disparity and that the names of the characters in a novel are almost always important to a writer's point and can help carry their message.

Since the beginning of time, humans have sought after power and control. It is human instinct to desire to be the undisputed champion, but when does it become a problem? Warfare has been practiced throughout civilization as a way to justify power. Though the orders come directly from one man, thousands of men and women pay the ultimate sacrifice. In Randall Jerrell’s “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner”, Jarrell is commenting on the brutality of warfare. Not only does Jarrell address the tragedies of war, he also blames politics, war leaders, and the soldier’s acknowledgement of his duties. (Hill 6) With only five lines of text, his poems allows the reader to understand what a soldier can go through. With the use of Jerrell’s poem, The Vietnam War, and Brian Turner’s “Ameriki Jundee”, the truth of combat will be revealed.

Various displays of politics, gender roles, and ideas of acceptance are portrayed within early literature from all over the world. The Odyssey, Beowulf, and Gilgamesh are examples of Western literature, while the Ramayana and works of Confucius are examples of Eastern literature, each text displays exceptional illustrations of what society generally lived like nearer to the beginning of human history. These specific texts are examples of the oldest written works that modern society today will not fully comprehend, but applying oneself to deciphering each text aids one in appreciating experiences and different ways of life. Recognizing culture and being grateful is learned through reading these texts and allows one to become knowledgeable for

There is an underlying battle in which someone is fighting and not so much to go to sleep but to complete any sort of task and succeed in their mission. I think it goes futher than just sleep