The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
– Randall Jarrell
From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.In a 2-3 paragraph response address the following questions and post in the comments section:
Introduce the Author, Poem, and a brief summary. Explain Randall Jarrell’s attitudes toward war as he expresses in this poem? What does he suggest about the value of individual human life during war? Explain the comparison that Jarrell makes in the poem and explain the Irony in this comparison. How does Jarrell prove his point in this poem? (Language, Poetic/Literary Devices). Is he effective? Why or Why not? (Include a couple quotes to support your writing)
Posted on May 4, 2011, in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. 51 Comments.
mrjgoyeneche 
In “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner’ by Randell Jarell, he reminisces on the experiences that people had as a Ball Turret Gunner. He confirmes that this job gives men little chance to make it out alive. in hich this reltes to abortion becasue everyone starts in the womb but is taken by his loyalty to the United States. The space in the “belly” of the plane was a very tight squeeze and when it got cold, they froze. The elevation the men flew made the cold that much greater. When they are up there they know there is no more dream for living becasue they knew they werent gunna make it out alive. When they did die, they were washed out and replaced with another brave soul. Jarrel’s attitudes toward the respect for human life in the war was that there was none. The United States had no compasion for the fallen ones, they didnt have time to,so they had to replace in a hurry. People were expected and knew they were gunna die, but they toook that brave leap into the fight for our country.
Jarell compares the Gunners Ball to a mothers womb in which they dont make it out alive, relating to abortion. To express his sentimental point he talks in a casual manner as if theres no big deal. in which to the War, death was assumed ot happen and was no big deal. but he also uses anamonapia and a great deal of imagry to really give the readers a view of the gunners ball and experience.
Jarrell is very effective, in which “From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State”shows the world that they have families just like every American but chose to fight for the people of the United States. “I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze’ these men went through torture from their least worries of the cold to the horror of death. “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose” these men werent treated with dignity, when they died they were cleaned out of the gunners ball adn replaced with another soul. what these men went through for the sake of the people of the United States was heroic. he also exemplifies the reality of war, and the horror these brave men face.
Randall Jarrell’s poem “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” is about going from birth to dying in an airship. He seems to object to war because it’s unnatural way for people to die. He suggests that an individual human life during war is nothing.
The poem makes a comparison between death in the ball turret and abortion. The ball turret represents the womb and when he describes how they washed him out “with a hose” it represents how abortions are done. Yes, he is effective in proving his point because through his word choices.
Randall Jarell is a very talented intelligent author born in Nashville Tennessee. In college, he was inspired by many writers who molded his career. Randall published many poems an criticisms. in World War II he entered the air force as a pilot. As his skills increased he became a instructor. With all this first hand experience he was able to deliver personal poetry. With his bravery and brilliance Randall is an award winning author.
This poem discusses his view on the war. We learn about the ball turret and its dreaded presence. We learn that being sent to the ball is like a death sentence. This poem also contains irony. “from my mothers sleep”. we can infer this line is about a mothers womb, which should be a safe haven. But its being related to the ball turret which is seen as inhuman. He vies the Ball turret as almost a nightmare he cant wake up from. And at the end we see how he compares it it abortion. “when i died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” Just like an abortion you are given no respect, no chance for life. Through this poem he is saying it in a conversational causal style.
We can infer he has negative views against the government. This entire poem can also be viewed as a government criticism. He expresses to us that humans feel very low about themselves went their sentenced to the ball turret. All of Randal’s points are expressed in powerful language.
“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” is classified as a citizen of the world story. Taken at face value, it is abut a man who died in the army for his country. He was in something called a ball turret, which was very dangerous. In the story, it shows the assive amounts of fear before he died and how little the U.S. cared about his death.
I reality, the story is much deeper than that. The author is really talking about the experiences of all who died in the war. He says that fighting in the war was like waking up “to black flak and the nightmare fighters.” That statement has a little irony in it. A nightmare is something someone sleep to get into. That person wakes should wake up from a nightmare, not into one. When he dies, “they washed him out of the turret with a hose.” The lack of respect for the body of an army soldier is immense.
The writings of this author are extremely effective. Normally, to explain something with a deep meaning like this, it takes a lot more writing than this. He effectively made the reader think, while explaining someones personal experience, and told a couple universal truths. That is more than difficult to do.
In Randall Jarrell’s, The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner, he describes the brutality of war and how young boys were ripped away from there families to be drafted to war. He describes this war from the prospective of a ball turret gunner. Those who were given this job went into this knowing that they were most likely going to die. Jarrell shows this wars as animalistic when he says, “When i died they washed me out of the turret with a hose”. Jarrell’s language in this poem is effective becasue it gets the reader to understand his idea that war was not about the individual person, that the individual person didnt matter. War was about the group of people that the soldiers were fighting for.
Randall Jarrell’s “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” is a short poem that depicts the life and death of a person who became a ball turret gunner in World War II. The poem is only five lines but each is written with its own deep meaning in a condensed story. By simply reading the poem a person can infer that it tells of a person’s life, career, and their death. However, this is just a simple reading of the poem and Randall’s true intentions about the poem are found in the deeper reading of it.
Through reading Randall’s poem the reader can find that war isn’t a pleasant thing. Death is a norm in war and it can be seen when they wash the body out with a hose and continue like nothing happened. While reading about being in the air you can put yourself in the position of that person. Being stuck in the ball turret makes one feel hopeless to the constant threat of the biting cold and even death. Dreams are only dreams and any chances of doing something with them are lost. Being forced and driven into a war leaves the life of a person destroyed and the potential that they once had is lost forever. It’s through Randall’s poetic style that he writes this that a person can find themselves connected empathetically to the poem.
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarell relays his attitude about the war. The poem talks about how, the person created by Jarell, gets drafted into the war in the United States. As he crawls into the turret gunner, the fur on his flight jacket freezes because of the altitude 6 miles high. As he is in the air he begins to realize that all his dreams are gone. Usually people go to sleep and sometimes have a nightmare but for the man in the poem, it was the other way around. He woke up to a nightmare of gun fire and smoke. After he died, the army replaced him like he was nothing and losing a human life was insignificant.
The author’s tone is somber and disgusted about the war, but his style of writing is casual. The irony of this poem is that Jarell compares abortion to the possibility of dying. “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” He compares an abortion to death in turret because to some people, having an abortion is insignificant and when he died, he felt the army did not care and he was nothing. He conveys his point of view about the war by telling others that he lost his dreams and didn’t have a choice in life.
Randall Jarrell born, May 6, 1914, was an American poet, essayist and war veteran. In 1945 Randall published a poem titled The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner. The poem depicts the experience many men had when they served in the ball turret which as Jarrell explains is,”a plexiglass sphere set in the belly of a B-17 or B-24, and inhabited by two .50 caliber machine guns and one man, a short small man”(Jarrell). The end of the poem matches the fate many ball turret gunners faced which, was death.
Although Jarrell is not openly against war in his poem he describes a negative exploit that was quite common when he served. In the poem Jarrell explains how the human life was viewed as expendable and easily replaceable. If a man was killed in the ball turret there wasn’t a special ceremony held so people could mourn their death, but instead their remains were washed out of the turret with a hose so another man could quickly take the place of the fallen soldier and the war could continue on. In this description the poem makes a chilling connection to a part of society that many people view as normal, abortion. The ball turret resembles the womb of a pregnant woman and the man serving inside represents the baby in the womb. In both instances the human life inside is devalued and their death is viewed as an unimportant mishap in either the war or the woman’s life. When the man is washed out of the turret with the hose this could be viewed as a metaphor of how many babies have been literally washed out of the womb of their mother. In writing this poem Jarrell has been successful in proving his point that society doesn’t value the sacredness of the human life and how the majority society views life as expendable.
Randall Jarrell, the writter of The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner explains his state in which he was in. Randall Jarrell’s attutudes about war in the peom are not compleatly clear to me but I think he was for the war and believed it may have been a just war.Although he died in the war he gave up his life to fight for his country. I believe Randall Jarrell knew exactly what he was getting into and he was prepared for the worst, he knows the threat of being killed is possible. Line one ” from my mother’s sleep i fell into the state” explains that he has fallen into a different state of mind such as fear or the unknown.
Line two of the poem “and i hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze” shows that he was in compleate shock that he was actually in war, that he may have been sweating from his fear or nerves. Line three “six miles from earth, loosed from its dream 0od lifer” explains that once the aircraft is out of sight he feels like he can no longer have a chance at life and that he is afraid he will die in combat. In line four it seem that he is actually dreaming but it is not compleatly clear whether he is dreming or not. In the last line “when i died they washed me out of the turret with a hose” it is implied that the aircraft has been hit and is going down, and has possibly exploded. And that the soilders bodys have been blown to peices and thats why it is forced to be washed out with a Hose. I believe that Randall Jarrel is effective in many ways with this poem, he explains his point of veiw of his whole experiencve in an extremeply complex but simple way.
In “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner”, written by Randall Jarrell, his opinion of war is very negative. He says “I fell into the State”. This shows that he did not sign up for his experience in the military, he was most likely drafted. With the ending line :”When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose” shows that Jarrell does not believe that human life is valued during the time of war. The way they just hose out the remains of the last gunner shows the lack of respect for life. Jarrell compares his place in the Ball Turret to the womb of a mother. He says “in its belly” talking about the ball turret. This comparison is very ironic. It is ironic because a mother’s womb is very protecting and comforting and sheltering of life. The Ball Turret Gunner was one of the most dangerous positions to be filled in the military. The Ball Turret was protected by only a thin sheet of metal and glass. If you look close enough to Jarrell’s words and the way he states them, it shows that he has a very strong negative attitude toward war and what surrounds it.
Randall Jarrell paints a very gruesome image in the minds of the readers that are viewing his poem The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner. The poem describes the rapid changed that one who is becoming a ball turret gunner must go through. There is the simple love that a mother gives her child that harshly transforms the baby into a man being subjected to unsurpassable danger. The crudeness of war make Jarrell bitter toward the government that treats the soldiers as just a replaceable expense that has no value as a human being.
In the poem he relates the journey of a ball turret gunner to that of an aborted baby. The process begins with nurturing hands “from my mother’s sleep” and results in nothing more than being “washed…out of the turret with a hose”. It is a grisly correlation that is being made but it makes a good point. Throughout the times of war many young lives of men that could have gone on to do great things were wasted just as a innocent baby’s life is gone when an abortion is performed. This poem is very effective in making its point and making people not turn a blind eye to war and the brutality it holds. The sly use of the onamonapia added an extra element to push his point over the edge and makes the poem have a longer lasting impact than just another poem.
The Author Randall Jarrell is describing his experience of being a victim of war. The Poem shows a metaphorical pattern. The poem is a contradictory one of death being represented in terms of birth. The “belly” of the “State”—which is the name of the B-17 or B-24(airplane of war), but also represents the persons “state” which could be referring to the person’s condition or a country. This has replaced the security of the warmth of a mothers womb of the “mother’s sleep” the complete battle fatigue dreaming of home or maybe dreaming of being secure or the security of a peaceful time. The Gunner(a rank equivalent to a private in a British army)undergoes the birth trauma; he falls “from [his] mother’s sleep (the womb) and is awakened to a nightmare “loosed from its dream of life”; the birth in his “‘state” is death. It can also be related to a women who has an abortion because after his death he is hosed out of the airplane. “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose” This is definitely a description of a women having an abortion and having not a regard for the life of child in her womb.
he proves his point because using war and killing people is an ineffective way to accomplish peace in the world. It also shows that the battle he experienced with killing others in war because perhaps he valued life and it seemed he didn’t want to be killed and disregarded.
Randall Jarrell was an American poet during the 1940s. He was an air pilot in the WWII. This poem was written in disgust to the way the ball turret gunners were treated. The line “And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze” shown that it was a very uncomfortable for these men. Ball turret gunners were the easiest to kill in the plane. after they were dead they were “washed out of the turret with a hose”. this showed that they were of any importance to the people.
This shows his dislike for the war. He believes that some of those who die are not given the respect that they deserve. Some are even taken against their own will and put into the war. He states that these people are facing their nightmares when they are awake. this poem effectively shows his dislike for war and how it the war can ruin the lives of those who took part in it.
The Death or the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell is about his personal opinion against the war. He suggests that the war is violent and depressing. He says that all human life should be valued and respects. Jarrell makes the comparison between a safe place in his mothers womb, compared to the violent open fire of war. It ironic because there is no safety in war.
He proves his point by expressing, in very little words, the violence that is in war and what could happen to an individual in war. It is extremely depressing. He is somewhat effective, because of how unclear he is. This is extremely up for examination.
This poem was written by Randall Jarell a war veteran. It is both a personal poem and a citizen of the world poem. It is a personal feeling because it expresses his views on the war but also a citizen of the world poem because it has a idea in it aimed at the government’s treatment of soldiers, specifically soldiers in a ball turret gunner.
The first line talks about how a soldier enters the world by his “mother’s sleep” and without her realizing it, the government takes him, by means of the military services. The second line addresses how he might’ve been nervous once he was there, forced into the danger of the ball turret. The third line talks about how far away he felt from the world while in the plain, maybe like he felt displaced and far from safety. There is irony in the 3rd line because usually we wake from nightmares with a feeling of relief but in this case he wakes up to a nightmare, a horror he can’t escape. The fifth line could be compared to an abortion, like a soldier’s life means nothing and that a soldier could simply be “washed..out” like a fetus in an abortion.
His overall expression towards the poem is negative towards the government for their ill treatment of the men who are losing their lives for the country. He feels like the government sees these soldiers as expendable rather than an actual life holding value and importance. He makes his point through his dark comparisons to other horrors that occur on earth, such as abortion, making the reader see how the government disregarded the importance of life.
Randall Jarrels, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” is a short poem that depicts the true fear shown by the words of each man who entered this ball turret. A ball turret is a small bubble on the bottom of a large bomber in WWII. They would be in a very exposed position of the plane where being killed was very likely. Each man who took up that position knew that they had a very slim chance at survival. It was such a cramped space that the slightest movement was almost impossible. The mindset of each soldier being shoved into this turret, knew that death was approaching.
Each line in the poem conceals its own special meaning that specifically provides a part to the story being portrayed. The first talks about how he is beginning his life from his “mothers sleep,” and being in the State. This ‘State’ can also represent not only the government, but his own shocked state of mind. The next line says that he is crouched and cramped into his small amount of space in the ball turret. The fur he speaks of could actually come from the small piece of fur located on a bomber-mans jacket. This is giving a visual to the still scene of a man being confined to his short fate. Each soldier was placed at about “6 miles from the earth,” a height with no room for mistakes. Each time they would change their perspective, all they would see is the sight of death all around them. The sight of fighter planes, smoke, bullets and shrapnel. Jarrel finishes the poem with a line saying that they would “washed me out of the turret with a hose.” This line closes with the thought that The amount of care for each man in the ball turret was slim.
Randall Jarrel’s view on the war was unlike many others. he did not look at the outcomes of the war, but rather, the actions it took to get to that point. He provides that in the war, human life was not valued whatsoever. The soldiers were seen simply as bodies fighting on their side. Jarrel was very effective in presenting his point on the individual lives throughout the war. each life is not taken into consideration and he brings that up multiple times throughout his short poem. The lives sacrificed in war are ones that cannot be simply replaced without proper respect, and Randall Jarrel explains that.
In the Death of the Ball Turret Gunner, the author, Randall Jarrell talks about his perception of war from the point of view of a ball turret gunner. “And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.” This conveys that Jarrell describes war to be very cold, physically and emotionally. “I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.” This also conveys that Jarrell thinks that war is a nightmare. He suggests that the life of a casualty in war is honored but not really respected. The last line, “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose,” really displays that the body isn’t respected. It also seems that he’s comparing a soldier in a turrret to a baby in the womb of a mother. He’s also comparing that his life means nothing in war just like a baby who is going to be aborted. Jarrell portrays this through the line, “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” He is referring that the turret is a womb. It seems that he really likes to use a lot of irony in his poems. It can be effective to readers who easily catch irony in literature.
Randall Jarrels expresses in his poem “The death of the Ball Turret Gunner” the life of each man who enters a ball turret. All the struggles and fear that go with the job of sitting in the ball turret. Every man who had taken the postion to become a ball turret knew that there was no a chance of survival. It was a very small space that a man had to sit it, it was very uncomfortable.
In the poem he talks about the how precious life, talking about from birth to death. The expierence that then men had to face going up in the sky; the height up in the sky there was no room for anyone to make a mistake. While riding in the Ball Turret he wakes up to black smoke and people shooting at the fiter jets from all around. In the last line the thought of “they washed me out of the turret with a hose” portrays the thought of the people who do not care for the lives of other humans.
His outake on the war was about the factors that had led up to the war and more about the people in the war more than the ending of the war. He showed how the human life was not well respected during the war.
Randall Jarrels expresses in his poem, “The death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, the life of a man who enters a ball turret. All the struggles and the fearfulness that go with the job of sitting in the ball turret. Every man who had taken the postion to become a ball turret knew that there was little to no chance of survival. It was a tiny space that a man had to sit it, like a death sentence.
In the poem he talks about the how precious life, talking about from birth to death. The expierence that then men had to face going up in the sky; the height up in the sky there was no room for anyone to make a mistake. While riding in the Ball Turret he wakes up to black smoke and people shooting at the fiter jets from all around. In the last line the thought of “they washed me out of the turret with a hose” portrays the thought of the people who do not care for the lives of other humans.
His view on the war was more about the factors that had led up to the war and more about the people in the war more than the ending of the war. He showed how the human life was not well respected during the war.
In Randall Jarrell’s poem, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, he expresses his attitude and overall feelings with despair and sorrow toward war. He suggests that in any situation, the dream of living life can be destroyed without choice. “Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life” (Jarrell). For instance, when women have abortions, the unborn child has no say in the matter. However, in war, life is at risk constantly without having a voice to get out alive. Each line of Jarrell’s poem is effective to all readers because the language that is used creates an image that compares the hate in war and the devastating moments that people go through in everyday life.
The art if poetry is intended to capture people’s attention while teaching them of a moral or message the author wants to get across. In the poem “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” the author Randall Jarrell paints a picture of a World War I gunner who is killed in war. It speaks on the message of the lack of respect for individual life involved in warfare along with the simultaneous and symbolic message of abortion.
War has never been an easy subject to talk about because of the strong emotion attatched to it. The author, Randall Jarrell, courageously takes the point of view of a dead ball turret gunner. This gunner explains in quick but complex writing, the horrid tragedy of war and it’s effects on the individual. Jarred doesn’t take on the vantage point of a patriotic war veteran but of a young man who’s death went unnoticed and ignored by his country and society. His poem suggests that life is not cared for entirely or at all during war but instead overlooked in order to see the “big picture.” This is not a positive concept taken on during wartimes and Jarrell does an excellent job at portraying the true sorrow that occurs in war.
This poem is more than one dimensional. Many people believe it also speaks on the tragedy of abortion in modern society through the poem’s symbolism. An example of symbolism that could be taken as a hint towards the abortion undertone is when the soldier states that “I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.” This example points out that a baby’s life staters in the belly of its mother while the freezing can symbolize the coldness or indifference of the mother towards is child. Another such example is that “when I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose” which symbolizes the abortion being committed and the baby being washed out of its mother. This comparison is ironic because the death of a ball turret gunner and an aborted baby are very similar in the sense that they both are trapped where they are (whether the gunner in a turret or a baby in the womb) where they lay hopeless against their deaths. Another ironic fact is that the gunner was drafted and had no choice in his position while the baby also was created by the mother and father and had no choice in life or death. This poem is straightforward and symbolic with two very controversial and heart wrenching subjects that make it an excellent poem of modern times.
During the 1940s many soldiers fought for our country risking their lives for our freedom. Randal Jarrel, author of “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, depicts the struggles of the soldiers who experienced the ball turret gunner. The soldiers who were drafted into the war experienced the animal characteristics of what war truly is. The men who were faced being inside the ball turret gunner, felt like they were trapped inside of a nightmare. Which is ironic because people usually wake up from nightmares when the men who were in the ball turret gunner could not wake up from the nightmare of war.
Randall Jarrel’s attitude towards war is the same as abortion back in that time era. When a ball turret gunner dies people had no emotions of their death. They would go on as if nothing had happened. “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” this line of the poem is has a major effect on the readers opinion because they can relate this poem to their own life.
Fabian Santa Cruz
In World War II, valiant soldiers risked their very existence on earth to keep the norm between the United Nations, and most importantly, the United States. Randall Jarrel, author of The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner, Depicts the hardships of the men who struggled to coexist, despite having one of the most dangerous positions. During Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, men were drafted involuntarily and were forced to man the death machine called the Ball Turret Gunner. Many tried to escape the reality of the situation occurring, but only managed to succumb to the mortality of the war. Without hesitation, the men who lost their lives were replaced immediately, without any concern to the body, and or the family.
Abortions during this era were illegal at the time, yet people managed to practice this. Randall Jarrell’s attitude towards war is similar to the opinion on abortion, it was illegally legal. It clearly states in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” yet, When a soldier is murdered in combat, “ they washed them out of the turret with a hose”, disregarding their life, similar to abortion. His clever use of irony reveals the bloody truth about the men that fought for our country and their story.
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner was written by Randall Jarrell. This poem is meant to portray a baby in a womb being aborted, and how in the ball turret, it is almost the same. That people are just washed away as one is recycled after another.
A womb of a mother is susposto be comforting and not able to be hurt. As the mother cares for the baby as if that is the only thing in her life that she has. The Ball Turret is the direct opposite. As the person is open to attack. There is not much protection within the ball. In some ways they are the same but in others, it can be completly different.
The death of the ball turret gunner, written by Randall Jarrell, is about the common use of a ball turret gunner in the war. Ball Turret gunners would sit in a tight plexi-glass circle and fire their weapon at enemy targets. They were extremely exposed and vulnerable for attack. The poem elaborates on the risk of becoming a ball turret gunner. It was very common for such gunners to only have one mission through out their life. They often died while in the ball turret. Jarrel makes it very clear that he believes humans were treated inhumane. Right after the plane landed they would wash out the body and send the next life into the death trap.
This topic is closely related to that of abortion. As the poem states “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” Like a ball turret gunner, once dead inside the small sphere, they would wash them out and continue on with a normal life. The style of the poem never states his opinion but hints at what the author really is saying. The use of language can lead to this poem being interpreted many different ways.
Randall Jarrell was an American poet who lived during the times of World War II. He taught at a university and also spent time in the United States Army Air Forces. Death of the Ball Turret Gunner is one if his most famous poems. It describes a person’s own experience in war. This poem mentions that they involuntarily joined the war and died in battle.
Randall Jarrell’s attitude towards war seems to be negative because the speaker of the poem describes war as being a nightmare. The value of life during war is expressed in this poem as minor and insignificant. The speaker talks about his death and how they simply “washed [him] out of the turret with a hose”. The irony in this poem is that the turret that he’s placed in can be compared to womb. The turret is an awful place to be in because it is dangerous and represents death. The womb symbolizes a place of life, shelter and protection.
Randall Jarrell proves his point about war being a horrible thing by the word choice and irony. These techniques are effective because one gets a gloomy and uneasy feeling after reading the poem. It also makes readers have a more negative outlook on war.
“The Death of the Turret Ball Gunner” by Randall Jarrell expresses a soldiers point of view during World War II as a Turret Ball Gunner. Randall’s attitudes of war is rather hostile and resistant to fighting and meaningless violence. The people in this poem valued a man’s life like they valued a baby about to be aborted. There is no emotion or respect for life during war. The irony of ” I woke to Black Flak and the nightmare..” is usually you fall asleep to a nightmare, not wake up to one. in the beginning with the innocence of a child in a mother’s womb, as the soldier is being enlisted to the war. Slowly, the soldier and child become involved in outer sources problems, which lead to a decision. Their lives were taken from them and they were just washed out and replaced with no feelings or emotions considered. A great example of this literary device is anamonepia.
The poem “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell talks about a life journey from their conception to their death. The obstacles that people face in their lives. As Randall Jarrell writes “I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters”, meaning that there were unexpected challenges to face at any moment. No one really knows what’s going to happen next. Just be ready for whatever the world throws at you. As the poem ends Jarrell writes “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose” meaning that your life gets treated like trash and it is easy to wash you away.
Jarrall compares lines from the poem such as,”When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose” to situations people face in everyday life such as abortion. The wording in the poem give the reader an image of a precious life being taken away. After reading the poem Jarrall might feel hatred towards war because maybe he lost a love one this way. We dont really know for sure but who would want to see their love one die and be washed out and be replaced.
In the poem “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell, he is explaining how it is getting ready to go into war. Randal’s attitude going into the war in this poem would be a little scared but knows what could happen and he’s ready for the worst outcome. He expresses the values of the individual lives that are also going into war with him as lives that should be cherished because they know that they might not come back alive. They know that there putting their lives at risk. Jarrell compares this to a bad dream. Instead of waking up from a bad dream, he wakes up to a bad dream.
Jarrell proves his point by explaining how the war was. He makes it feel like your actually getting ready to get into the turret gunner and you may not come back alive. His attitude and explanations about the war is effective because the readers can see how it truly is now. “I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters” shows that the war is a bad dream that your living. He does a good job at connecting that.
in the Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell a soldier shows the reader a look at his life from birth to grisly death at war. Jarrell shows negative attitude towards war which he expresses throughout the entire poem by showing that the life of the soldier selected to fight from the ball turret was inconsequential and meant little to the war as a whole, “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose” this alone is enough to prove how little life was respected. He suggests that the soldier is not worth reverant treatment and is simply washed away like dirt. The comparison that Jarell makes in his poem, which include waking to blak flak which is impossible becuase he would be dying not coming back from sleep, and fur which is supposed to keep you warm but it freezes to this man. these suggest a type of sarcastic tone which show that he believes the things that should bring comfort dont being anyhting to this man. the title itself shows that it goes without saying that whoever enters the ball turret isnt expected to come back out. Jarrell proves his point in this poem by showing that the life of the soldier is not a prized thing. the soldiers are used like tools and pawns that can be moved to fit wherever they are needed which includes the sacrafice of the fighter in the ball turrett. the way they clean out the ball turret alone shows that it isnt something new or suprising. it is a common occurance to that person to simply wash away another human being. Jarrell is effective in proving his point. He shows the unjust way the men were treated and he also shows that men willing to fight for their State deserve more respect than they recieved in this poem and in war.
The poem is The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell. the poem describe the events that take place in the mind of someone who is a ball turrent gunner. His attitudes are negative becasue in the first line, he talks about how he was unwantingly drafted. He suggests that the value of an individual life isn’t much because they just washed out his dead body.The poem can be seen as a comparisson to abortion. He proves his point by being very dark and to-the-point.
In the poem “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell the narrator is a man who goes off to war and is placed in a horrific position.The narrator has a morbid tone throughout the poem. He is the Ball Turret Gunner. The narrator knows that being the Ball Turret Gunner he is certain to die. The line “loosed from its dream of life” illustrates for the readers that the man is in a far away state and he knows that he is going to die.
The first line of the poem “From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,” can be interpreted as a young man who is forced to leave the safety of his mother because he is drafted into the war. The reader can infer that the young man is upset about leaving home, and being forced to fight in the war. In the second line the “And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.” The narrator illustrates that the young man is frightened and extremely nervous. In line four the narrator states “I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. ” The is ironic because when one has a nightmare you can wake up to escape, but in the poem when the narrator wakes up from blacking out he is still in war and still in his “nightmare”, he can not escape his impending doom. The last line of the poem the “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” the reader can infer that the young man has been shot and killed. The narrator illustrates that life isn’t being valued. The men who clean out the Ball Turret can also represent Abortion Doctors, both treat the person as an object that can just be disposed of instead of a human being.
“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell is a morbid poem about the brutality of war. A young man is force to leave the safety of home because he is drafted into the war. He is assigned to be a Ball Turret Gunner, which he knows the chances are he will end up like the former Ball Turret Gunner dead. Randall Jarrel shows how in war there is no value of life. He exemplify the brutality of war by using imagery.
In Randall Jarrall’s “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” he expresses his feeling’s toward war and the things that make war possible. He is effective in showing his point of view about war and how people are takin into it due to his use of comparisons and making readers use figurative thinking.He believes that some are taken from saftey and thrown into battle when he uses “from my mothers sleep i fell into the state”. Thus exemplify his attitude toward men being drafted into the army.
In this poem, Jarrall also suggest the issue of abortion. He says,”And when I died, they washed me out of the turret with a hose”. he is suggesting the fact that after a child is aborted, they are sometimes forgotten about and their respect for life is violated. He feels that war and everyday life are connected in many ways.
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner, written by Randall Jarrell, simply gives the reader an upclose and personal view of his life and past experiences in a short five line poem. it begins with describing how he was brought to the world through his mother’s “sleep” or sexual intercourse, causing him to “fall” or become victim to the “state” which will guide him to the position of a ball turret gunner. Like being in his mother’s belly, the ball turrest symbolizes him being secured in a round area except unlike a warm cozy belly, he sits in the ball turret “until his wet fur froze” showing that this ball turret is in complete contrast to the warmness and comfort of his mother. Randall Jarrel thoroughly expresses his feelings about war in this poem by comparing his enemies bullets as “black flak” andrefers to his enemies as “nightmare fighters.” These reveal his fear he felt while engaging in war and fighting. Jarrell shows his true emotions about the value of indivduals in war “when he died, they washed his body out with a hose,” revealing the government doesn’t look at him and appreciate him as a single person who fought for his country, but just as another soldier who was apart of a bigger army. Jarrell makes the comparisn of war as to abortion and how they have the same affect on an individual as each other. starting in his mothers sleep and ending while being washed out with a hose equivilates to act of abortion, making the government the parent of all of our soldiers who will maybe one day be “aborted.” I think Jarrell is effective with getting his point across becuase he uses irony to provide his poem with intensity and visuals.
in the poem, the death of the ball turret gunner, the author Randell Jarrell talks about a short version of his life all wrapped up. During war the value of life was huge, their had to be man willing to stand up an fight, and he some what potrays that whenn he was first born he was a fight from the beginning. He quotes “I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters” resembling how he was made a fighter. This can have some iorny as he states in his last line
that “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.”
The short poem, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell, breifly tells a story about himself being a ball turret gunner in the war. The language that Jarrell uses indicates that he probably wasn’t for the war. He felt that when people got drafted into the war their dream of life was pretty much gone, and putting people into the ball turrets was inhumane. The way Jarrell describes how his body was taken out of the ball turret suggest that individual human life wasn’t of much value during the war. Once the gunner dies he is pretty much dehumanized.
Jarrell compares the ball turret gunner to a fetus in a mother’s womb being aborted. In the first line Jarrell writes “From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State”. This can be interpreted as sometimes when a mother falls asleep so does the fetus or as a soldier being drafted into the Army or the “State”. Then, “hunched in its belly” is like the womb or the ball turret, and the “wet fur” is the fur on the gunner’s jacket. Jarrell mentions being “loosed from its dream of life”. This is like when a fetus gets aborted its dream of life is cut off and when a soldier gets into the ball turrell he has a high chance of dying and his dream of life too is cut off. Waking up to black flak could be the chemicals or tools trying to kill the baby and nightmare fighters are the people performing the abortion. When the gunner is dead and is washed out of the turrett is similiar to how the fetus is washed out of its mother’s womb when being aborted.
It is ironic that Jarrell would make this comparison due to the fact that he is comparing two things that would not seem practical to compare. But he does proves his point that putting people in ball turrets is wrong by comparing them to a fetus getting aborted.
“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell represents the life of a gun turret operator who is killed during a high altitude battle. When Jarrell explains the man in battle he illustrates that the man felt like he was in a nightmare. This shows that being involved in a battle during war is a scary time you dont know if your going to come out alive or not. However this man doesnt come out on top and Jarrell feels like the gun turret was not cared about by the way they jus wash him out of the hole. The death of an individual life during war is not respected by the way he describes
the mans remains being washed out by a hose.
The first line of this poem when Jarrell states “From my mother’s sleep I fell into the state”. This resembles that his mom woke up with a bad feeling about how her son was doing. They say that mother’s have a feeling in their heart when their son is away telling them if there son is ok or not. The most important irony within this story is how Jarrell portrays that the turret hole is like a womb and wombs are suppose to be a safe place to be. Also how he states the man being washed out with a hose resembles a baby being aborted.
Randall Jarrell the author of the The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner a poem about a man falling to his death from a fighter plane. He awoke to find his enemy on top of him awaiting his death. He thought of war as a dream to do what he wanted in life. The author did not state a name which shows that this happened often, and many men had simalar fate. The beginning of this poem started with a mother, maybe a womb, this is a safe place. In the end of the poem the man dies almost the exact way he was brought into the world. Jerrell proves his point by the cruel death of the planesmen. Yes, he is effective because he uses different literary terms to prove his statements. This makes you take a more indepth look into the poem such as, “Six miles from earth, loosed from the dream of life” meaninng a man is high up looking down upon his death.
In “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, Randall Jarrell expresses the conditon and state of mind a gunner would be in. Jarrell seems to blatantly dislike war, he shows this with his tone. He suggests that human life is a tool in war. It’s helpful as long as it works, but as soon as it stops working; it become useless. Life is replaceable and hardly even valued. When the me gunner dies it’s just time for a new man, as shown in the last line of the poem. Jarrell makes the comparison of a ball turret gunner and the womb. This comparison is ironic because the womb is a place of safety and nourishment and care, where as the ball turret is a place of isolation and danger and extreme conditions. Jarrell uses literary devices such as irony, metaphors, tone, mood and consonance to prove his point. Yes he is effective because he gives the feeling of uneasiness about the war, conditions, and lack of value in human life. For example, the statement, “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” This shows complete disregard for this mans life that was just given for his country.
In the poem “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, Randall Jarrell explains a situation and personal thoughts and feelings a gunner in the war would be in. Judging by the tone used by Jarrell suggests that he does not view the war in a positive way. Also that the value of human life is in fact not valued at all since the gunner’s role was to fire at enemy planes while being very exposed being an easy target for death. Literary devices used were irony, tone, and mood expressing his views about war and being a gunner. It is very effective because it shows his strong feelings for being against the war and how they treated the brave men for basically giving their life away for their country and not getting any respect. For example, “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” This portrays how when one life was taken to fight for the war that no one cared about that individual and treated them like something they could just wash away.
In “The Death Of the Ball Turret Gunner”, Randall Jarrel describes what it felt like to be a gunner in the ball turret. This poem can be easily seen as a child beginning it’s life in the womb. As he falls into the state it reminds us that anyone can be chosen to go to war, as is the same as babies entering into the womb. “Six miles from earth”, describes how close you can be to earth and normality as babies are when they have spent enough time in the womb but in a split second both army recruit and baby can wake up to one mistake and easily die. As easy as they both come they both can easily be taken away from life without ever really being recognized.
Randall Jarrel has a depressing attitude towards his poem facing the toughest of facts in life that many don’t want to face. The army is usually looked at as a whole and not as individual heroes so many pass over on the facts that many men and women are giving there lives for their country. Segment four, “I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters” is irony in his poem because usually you awake from a nightmare to safety instead of waking to a nightmare and insecurity. All throughout his poem he proves his point of war in a ball turret gun where you are put on the front where you really don’t have a chance at life and as easy as they come they will easily go.
The author of the poem The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner was born in Nashville, Tennesee. In WW2 he was an aviation instructor and he taught pilots to fly B29 bombers. Jarrell’s attitude towards the war as expressed in this poem was that it was unreal. “Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life.”, shows that he feels far away from the war. When he says ” the nightmare fighters”, he means that war is a nightmare.
His poem shows that he thinks that the values of human life is very low, like an animal and not a human being. When he says “I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze”, that is showing that he is an animal and that is about how much value a human being has during the war.
The comparison that Jarrell makes is between the gunner hunched into the little sphere like a fetus in the womb,”From my mothers sleep… I hunched in its belly…. “When I died, they washed me out… with a hose,” is a comparison to the fetus being aborted. When the gunner is killed, he is washed out of the turret the same way the fetus is washed out of the womb during an abortion.
Jarrell’s poem makes the point that war dehumanizes people and that they are not honored for what they do and go through. In the end, the warriors don’t feel proud of what they do and they try not to think about what could possibly happen to them. Jarrell proves this by his grisly description of the gunners death trapped in the pit and burned alive, not leaving a body but just stuff that had to be washed out with a hose.
The poem is very effective and leaves a sickening immage of war and showing the reality of the horrible death soldiers suffer when they are killed. It shows how they feel disconnected from the world and what they are fighting for.
In The poem,Randall Jarrel speaks about hte conditions that would be feeling in the ball turret. He extreamly does not like the war. his thoughts was thatr it is our own personal faulits for starting a war. War becomes pointless after the time you say its almost over. Jarrell make a conection of the turret of the plaine to the womb of a women. This is ironic because the ball turret is not safe where the womb is so much more safer than a baby being out in the open.Jarrell uses literary devices such as irony, metaphors, tone, mood and consonance to prove his points. he shows his problems by this quote of saying how ” when i diesd they washed me out of the turret,” As a man he basically was theperson as if he went through post dramatic syndrom.
In “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner”, by Randall Jarrell, the author portrays the gruesomeness and carnage of the war. He clearly represents the anti-war people of the country.
In this poem Jarrell depicts the ball turret gunner as much less than human, they are merely an expendable resource. He states that the dead gunner was washed out with a hose, like a bucket full of trash. This clearly shows the disrespect and disregard for the lives of the soldiers.
Jarrell allows the author to interpret what he means in his poem, but his point is very clear, he makes references to abortion and anti-war circumstances. The symbolism in the poem is constant and he does a very good job preaching his anti-war policies.
‘The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner’ , written by Randal Jarrell is a poem that tells of the experience and of the miserable conditions the author has gone through while serving as a turret gunner, just as any soldier is taken from the safety of their home and having their life thrown away in defense of a cause and country they may never live to see flourish.
Life, as Jarrell describes its cycle, is the rebirth of a grown man, sitting cramped and cold on the underside of a machine of war being thrown into a fire fight during a night mission only to become a statistic of war, almost a nuisance having to be “washed out of the turret with a hose”.To show the lack of empathy Jarrell projects the horrors of war with his lax description of simply washing away the memories of the men he fought with
In the short poem of “The Ball Turret Gunner,” Randall Jarrell, a participant of the war expresses the mindset of what a person in his position would experience. He compares the life of a fighter in a ball turret to the life that he has lived. The poem has many metaphorical meanings. Jarrell said a lot more metaphorically than he did literally in this poem.
He expresses many attitudes towards war. He shows that the ball turret would be the end of the line for people. Otherwise saying if you were a ball turret gunner you were expected to die. The value of human life during the war is expressed in the last line of the poem when it states “When i died, they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” The lives of these men were not so valued. They were valued so much that they were soon replaced within the next few days.
The Death of the Ball turret gunner by Randall Jarrell is a poem that tells the story of a man that is killed in a turret Gun during WWII. Nowhere in the poe does it say the time it took place, but due to the time of the poem being written(1945), you can safely assume it is about WWII. Each line in the poem tells a new part of the stroy, such as a new scene in a movie or a new chapter in a book. First, “From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State.” This line explains that the man entered a certain state of conscience nous or unconsciousness. The next line, “And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.” Assuming that the poem is talking about WWII, this phrase can be talking about the soldier being in a cold place such as Russia, and he is cramped up in his turret gun with no one to care for him. The third line is maybe the easiest to understand,
“Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,” As the “Six miles from earth,” is most likely talking about the aircraft being shot down from an altitude of 6 miles in the air. Now the poem moves into a darker part, “I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.” Flak is another name for a vest, probably that the crew members of the aircraft wore. It was described as black, referencing the possibility that it could be burned by flames from the crash. In the Last line is where the author expresses his views on how the soldier is viewed in war, “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” These words describe the soldier as replaceable. For when he dies, he will be washed out of the turret and replaced with another helpless soul ready to take orders and be lead to their possible death.
I really do not believe that Randall Jarrell did not prove his ;point in the poem, for it would be very difficult to successfully propose an idea and prove it in a 5 line poem. He did a good job of creating a theory, but it is a theory that would have to be studied and proven by the individual reader, or else it stands as only an individual’s opinion.
the ball turret is like a mothers womb but not as comforting as it should be. when the poet says “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose”, it very similar to forshadowing aborion as if they wash away the away the bodys with the hose its like suctiong out the baby from the womb.”I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters”hes living in nightmare which he cannot get out of unless death. When the apoets says “From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State”, its like he was taking away from his mother without her even knowing. It might also mean that he was drafted into the war.”Six miles from earth, loosed from the dream of life”,
means he is so far up from the earth its only a matter of time till its his time to go and hes only closer to heaven.
in “The Death of the Ball TurretGunner’, by Randall Jarrell is saying how when u feel cold inside or lonely there feels like nothing goes right. He says that when he dies he is washed down with a hose to clean everything out. They didnt like how they would fight in the war and how they had to fight in horrible conditions. They were freezing cause of the coldness and cause of the winter.he would wake up with cold fur and would and would be freezing with the fur on. he would look up and there were fighters would try and would try and kill him. He was scared that he would be killed by a fighter plane and would never be able to wake up again.The war was terifying and was cold. Many of the war conditions were cold and was horrible
War is universally seen as an ugly or bad thing to Americans or any citizen that want peace. War only causes grief and destruction, leaving many groups of people displaced or abused. In battle, there are soldiers on the ground and in the air. Our narrator, Randall Jarrell, is a ball turret gunner and describes the terrible conditions he endured. It wasn’t the tight space that bothered him, but the isolation and abandonment he felt in the sky.
Six miles from land alone, only able to look down at the ants of people for hours would be torturous. The feeling of being lost from life and being used as a weapon, not a person, is just dehumanizing. A person loses their dignity when entering the ball and becomes a simple object. At the end of this story, Randall states how he’s washed out with a hose. Like some mess made, the army just clean up and replace him. Randall is trying to depict the dehumanizing nature war has and it is disgusting to think people can be treated in such ways. Randall reinforces his beliefs with strong with strong metaphors and words.
In “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, Randall Jarell expresses the fear and courage each man had to face while being in the “belly” of the B-24 plane. Each man that entered that ball knew that they had little to no chance of coming back alive.
Jarell feelings towards war is the parrells his feelings about abortion. After the death of a Ball Turret Gunner the clean up crew would just wash out the ball and go on with their lives. Acting like nothing every happened and even worst would replace the dead man with a new live one. “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” this line of the poem is has a major effect on the readers opinion because they can relate this poem to their own life.