How do the poems ‘Telephone Conversation’ by Wole Soyinka, ‘War Photographer’ by Carol Ann Duffy and ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’ by Chinua Achebe explore the theme of conflict?
Conflict is a topic that is often associated with negative connotations. It evokes emotions such as sadness or fear and can make the reader empathetically experience pain or loss. Examples of conflict include war and racism. The poems ‘Telephone Conversation’ by Wole Soyinka, ‘War Photographer’ by Carol Ann Duffy and ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’ by Chinua Achebe all explore the detrimental effects of conflict. The poems use literary devices such as alliteration, sibilance, metaphors and sensual imagery to convey their ideas. This essay will examine how these poems explore the theme of conflict.
Semantic choice in the poems ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’ and ‘War Photographer’ evokes the feeling of loss from the reader by conveying images of death. In ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’, the phrase “tiny grave” indicates that war brings death to even the youngest and innocent children. The feeling of loss caused by conflict is present in the mother’s heart because she loses her child. “In ‘War Photographer’, the words “cries of this man’s wife” represents the soldier’s wife crying alongside while the soldier was being shot. The soldier’s wife experiences the feeling of loss. This links conflict to these feelings of loss and sorrow.
Also, semantic choice in the poems causes the reader to feel the pain that conflict causes. In ‘War Photographer’, the “reader’s eyeballs prick with tears,” conveys that the images of war and death from the newspaper make the reader feel pained, and evokes sadness. The word “prick” is a sharp word, suggesting that the reader feels a shar...
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...in the case of Iraq, to suffer at the hands of corrupt higher authority. However, the tone switches in the last stanza to a peaceful one, when the child reaches up and the “fruit fell in his arms.” The end of the poem conveys that when you let go of the past, which is full of conflict and suffering, the future can hold improvements.
In conclusion, poetry can effectively capture and present the detrimental effects of conflict. The overall negative opinion towards conflict can be further strengthened using techniques discussed previously, such as semantic choice and sensual imagery. The poems ‘War Photographer’ and ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’ explore the effects of war and ‘Telephone Conversation’ explores racism. Finally, to sum up the poems, conflict, in any form, has very harmful effects towards humans and the world and the world would be better without conflicts.
The modern world is full of social issues and people use all different kinds of way to express the way that they feel and how they see things. Bruce Dawe uses his poem ‘War Without End’ and Christopher Mann with his poem ‘Country Matters’ to convey important messages.
As can be seen, Paul Boyer, Tim O’Brien, and Kenneth W. Bagby, convey the notion that war affects the one’s self the most. Through the use of literary devices: tone, mood, pathos, and imagery, these 3 authors portray that war affects a person’s self most of all. War is not only a battle between two opposing sides, but it can also be a mental conflict created within a person. Although war is able to have an effect on physical relationships between family, friends, or even society, conflict within oneself is the most inevitable battle one must face during war times.
There are only two types of people in a time of war and crisis, those who survive and those who die. Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night, shows how Elie, himself, faces difficult problems and struggles to survive World War II. Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, tells a story about a young soldier thinking of himself before others during World War I. The poem “Mary Hamilton” shows how a mother killed her child
War and its ramifications for those who are unfortunately entangled in it, is an issue that has fueled both political discussion and literary exploration throughout the previous century. Underived, authentic accounts of the experience and effects of war, from those who have served in it, can be especially enlightening for the majority of society who have had the fortune of not being intimately familiar with war. Through the examination of poems and stories written by soldiers, who were inspired by their involvement in conflict, one can obtain a greater understanding of this gruesome aspect of life, without having to directly experience it. Similarly, soldier turned poet, Bruce Weigl, has contributed his perspective on war through his literary
Understanding the effects of war and the appalling experiences our soldiers have to endure while fighting for their country facilitates communicating effectively about literature and its function in the context of American and world history and culture (SLO2). The purpose of imagery is to help get the poet’s message across in a language that is strong and vivid.
Poetry has been used for centuries as a means to explore emotions and complex ideas through language, though individuals express similar ideas in wholly different forms. One such idea that has been explored through poetry in numerous ways is that of war and the associated loss, grief, and suffering. Two noted Australian poets shown to have accomplished this are Kenneth Slessor with his work ‘Beach Burial’ and John Schumann’s ‘I Was Only Nineteen’. Both of these works examine the complexities of conflict, but with somewhat different attitudes.
‘The Falling Soldier’ is one of many poems by Duffy which deals with the subject of human mortality. Duffy expresses what could have been over a harsh reality; this is characteristic of her as also seen in ‘Last Post’ and ‘Passing Bells’ which both seem to be largely influenced by poet peer Wilfred Owen’s personal experiences of war. In the ‘The Falling Soldier’ Duffy paradoxically captures the essence of Robert Capa’s famous photograph of a man falling after being shot during the Spanish Civil War (1936). She employs the form of an impersonal narrative voice, using second person to question the possibilities, to explore the tragic and cyclical nature of war. The futile reality of war contrasts to her central theme in ‘The Bees’ anthology of bees symbolising the grace left in humanity.
Many war pieces express a distinct sense of truth, hatred, and anger that can be found in the style, tone, and imagery they possess. Incredible images are created in ones mind as war writings are read and heard. Works written by such writers as Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, and Tim OBrien really reach out to the audience by way of the authors choice of words and images that they use in their writing. These talented writers create very touching and heart-felt images as they write about the true occurrences, problems, feelings and emotions that soldiers encountered throughout times of war. It is by way of these writers words that the bloody truth of war is heard, rather than the glorified victories heard which overlook the pain that soldiers went through.
In this poem, the poet describes a contemporary war which was more intense than those in the old days and the hopelessness for soldiers to come back from the war. When the speaker got the news that his friend, who saw service in that war, was coming back, he was then in an emotional conflict between the eagerness to see his friend returning from the war and the worry about if his friend was still alive or not because he understood the cruelty of the war.
in war and the horrors of war. I will use my social, cultural and historical knowledge and by using particular poems, I will support my idea of the attitudes changed after World War One. For this essay I will be looking at six different poems, two for each theme I am. looking at the. For the Patriotism of war, I will be using 'The Call' by.
I am going to compare and contrast the two poems ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen and ‘War Photographer’ by Carol Ann Duffy. They both give a view of war. Owen gives first hand experiences he witnessed whilst fighting in World War One and where he unfortunately died one week before the war came to an end. Carol Ann Duffy may be writing about the feelings of her personal friends who were war photographers, showing some of the horrors they witnessed.
Owen’s poem uses symbolism to bring home the harsh reality of war the speaker has experienced and forces the reader to think about the reality presented in romanticized poetry that treats war gently. He utilizes language that imparts the speakers experiences, as well as what he, his companions, and the dying man feels. People really die and suffer and live through nightmares during a war; Owen forcefully demonstrates this in “Dulce et Decorum Est”. He examines the horrific quality of World War I and transports the reader into the intense imagery of the emotion and experience of the speaker.
wants to say in the poem is about anger and object to war. The poet
In the poem Refugee mother and child written by Chinua Achebe and Refugees written by Kapka Kassabova, an important idea of loss is conveyed by using interesting language techniques such as simile, alliteration and metaphor. They both link to the idea of the abstract loss and Achebe, itself, links to physical loss.
‘’War Photographer’’ is a thought-provoking and mind gripping poem by Carol Ann Duffy. The poem revolves around the life of the photographer as he juggles between his two personas as he try to develop his photos and reminisce about the war torn countries, all the innocent people and the horrific and gory things he has witnessed. As the poem progresses and the pictures begin to develop the memories of pain and suffering from his past starts to unravel and becomes clearer and clearer. The main message the writer is trying to convey is the fact that through modern times news about the war is being published by the media in a truthful way that people feel less sympathy towards the innocent lives of the people dying all around the world. The writer effectively raises questions about our feelings and emotions that we feel towards war and death.