What is the meaning behind the Death of the Ball Turret Gunner?

“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” highlights the government’s power to sweep people up into war. This emphasizes the impersonal nature of “the State,” indicating that the government has the power to not only send the speaker to war, but to “wash away” his entire life.

What is the author’s purpose for using a first person point of view in the Death of the Ball Turret Gunner?

First person perspective gives this poem a direct route into the reader’s mind. This is the voice of the gunner, more than likely to be a young man, summing up his experience of war in simple past tense.

What is the tone of the Death of the Ball Turret Gunner?

Randall Jarrell used compassion, sorrow, and angry tone through the poem to speak out the voice of the death gunner. He shows no sympathy and no remorse. “I woke to the flak and the nightmare fighters” this line increase the tone of sorrow, people often wake up at midnight because of the nightmares.

What does from my mothers sleep mean?

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner When the speaker says he “fell into the state,” it could mean that he fell into a state of war or an untimely death. The first line transitions from innocent when mentioning the mother into his own dangerous reality. The theme is direct because it emphasizes the death of a soldier.

What does loosed from its dream of life mean?

Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. In lines 3 and 4, this is reversed: life is the dream and reality is death—the “black flak and the nightmare fighters.” The threat of death becomes more immediate, more real than life.

What is the extended metaphor in The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner?

“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” is a conceit, or extended metaphor. It was characteristic of Jarrell to see the soldier as a sacrificed child, and he relates this to maximum effect in the poem.

What does my wet fur froze mean?

And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. The speaker tells us about his wet fur being frozen, so that could mean he’s in an extremely cold environment and he’s freezing. When the speaker says he “fell into the state,” it could mean that he fell into a state of war or an untimely death.

When was the death of the ball turret gunner written?

The American writer Randall Jarrell published “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” in 1945, the final year of World War II. The poem’s speaker suggests that he slips from the protection of his mother’s womb into “the State,” where he finds himself in a ball turret (the round compartment on a bomber plane from which a gunner shoots).

What happens at the end of the ball turret?

There, he hunkers down inside a new womb, the ball turret. His days are filled with black flak and nightmarish scenes of life and death. The poem’s final line reveals that the speaker is dead, and his remains were washed from the “womb” with a hose. You can read the full poem here.

What role did the plane’s ball turret play in the poem?

The plane’s ball turret took on the role of the soldier’s new “mother.” It is only because of the war and what was seen as necessary violence that the speaker finds himself in the situation that he’s in.

What happened to the young gunner from his mother’s sleep?

The young gunner, who comments, “From my mother’s sleep I fell into the state,” never awoke to life. Rather, he “hunched in the belly” of the plane, this new, state-provided death womb, until he woke only to die, amidst the “black flak and the nightmare fighters.”