What is the purpose of The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner?

What is the purpose of The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner?

“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” uses intense metaphors of wombs, dreams, and awakenings to evoke the speaker’s innocence—and his terrible death. Right from the start, the poem metaphorically connects the speaker’s experience as a ball turret gunner to the experience of being inside a womb.

When I die they wash me out of the turret with a hose?

“When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” There’s not enough to even bury, you’re just splattered all over the inside of the turret. They just get a steam cleaner and wash it down.

Why does the gunner experience freezing?

Once the Plexiglas covering of the ball turret has been shattered by gunfire, which may have killed the Gunner directly, the freezing cold of the upper altitudes at which these mighty bombers flew froze the “fur” and the gunner himself.

Was Randall Jarrell a ball turret gunner?

Poet and critic Randall Jarrell was born in Nashville, Tennessee. As a child, he spent time in Los Angeles, where his grandparents lived, and he would later write movingly about the city in “The Lost World,” one of his best-known poems. Jarrell’s collections of poetry…

What kind of poem is the death of a ball turret gunner?

Structure and Form ‘The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner’ by Randall Jarrell is a five-line poem that is contained within one stanza of text. Jarrell chose to write this piece in free verse.

What is the dominant imagery in The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner?

Jarrell himself said the gunner in the turret was like a child in a womb and he relies heavily on that imagery in the poem. Line 1: “Mother” really jumps out in line one. Lines 2-5: The description of the gunner in the ball turret as “hunched in [the] belly” of the bomber makes the turret into a metaphor for the womb.

How many tail gunners died in WW2?

Through the entire operation, the Rear Gunner knew that the Luftwaffe fighter pilots preferred to attack from the rear and under the belly of the bomber, so he was often 1st in line for elimination. During World War II – 20,000 air gunners were killed while serving with Bomber Command.”

What was the life expectancy of a WW2 tail gunner?

The Rear-Turret Gunners were in the most vulnerable position on the Plane. The life expectancy of a WW2 Rear-gunner varied but was never high, mostly about just 5 Sorties.

What was the death of the ball turret gunner about?

The Poem. A gem of a small poem, Randall Jarrell’s “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” is often used in classrooms to exemplify the sustained metaphor. One of the poems based on Jarrell’s own experience in World War II, this tiny poem presents a layered message about the waste of war.

What’s the difference between a ball turret and a gunner?

The words “turret” and “gunner,” especially together, are likely to confuse the majority of readers. The title refers to a ball turret, a feature of a bomber aircraft. This was like the B-17 or B-24. The ball turret was made of plexiglass and inset at the bottom of the plane.

Where is the ball turret in a B-17?

He is a gunner in the air force, positioned in a ball turret housed in the belly of a B-17. In the end, the gunner’s corpse is removed and the turret cleaned with what seems like little regard for his death. Although it is only 5 lines long, it is intricate enough that it leads to many different theories and examinations.

Why was the ball turret used as a mother?

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.