Bayonet Charge And Remains Flashcards
Suddenly he awoke
Medias res to show he’s confused and vulnerable and launched straight into action like a nightmare
Hot khaki his sweat heavy
Repeated h sound imitates the soldiers breathing
Bullets smacking the belly out of the air
Violent imagery and onomatopoeia describes the sound and impact of the shots
A rifle as a smashed arm
Simile suggested rifle as useless for shadows. The injuries he is likely to get.
“Patriotic tear,” to “sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest,”
His patriotism has turned to fear and pain his heroic ideals have been replaced by painful reality. Connotes extreme pain
“ in bewilderment, then he almost stopped-“
This stanza pauses the action focuses on the soldier wondering why he is there
“ in what cold clockwork of the stars in the Nations
Emphasises the soldiers insignificant and its lack of control of his situation. Cold implies that the people in charge of the world don’t care about individual soldiers. Realises that he has no control when the faint and unfeeling nations have led him here he is just a cog
“ he was running like a man jumped up in the dark and runs,”
Simile creates an image of someone blind in a rational suggesting there is no rational reason for war
Extensive sensory language “blinded” “deafened” “rubbed raw”
Multi sensory overwhelming and chaotic experience. Shows bewilderment and extreme confusion. Shows disorientation at loss of motivation plus reality of war.
“ a yellow hair that rolled like a flame and crawled in a threshing circle it’s mouth wide,”
Violent image of suffering reminds him of danger. The suffering is too severe to express.
“ King on a human dignity et cetera drops like luxuries and the yelling alarm,”
Higher morale and patriotic principles of no use or dropped symbolising for patriotism and duty, et cetera is dismissive
“his terrors touchy dynamite,”
Dynamite is destructive but needs to spark his terror has ignited his survival instinct he can now destroy to survive. Explosive and destructive potential.
“On another occasion,”
This sounds like one in a series of stories and the reader is listening in
“Legs it,”
Colloquial expression makes it sound like an ordinary anecdote
“Possibly armed, possibly not,”
There is doubt here which contrast strongly with the definite action that follows
“All three,” “three” “all”
Repetition sounds like he’s keen for the Reader to know it wasn’t just him. This is that he feels guilty.
“Open fire,”
This comes as a surprise the sudden violence doesn’t fit with the causal tone
“I see,” repeated
Emphasises is the visual horror of the scene
“It rips through his life”
This violent metaphor contrasts shockingly with the colloquial style of the first two stanzas
“ I see broad daylight on the other side”
This is quite a test exaggerated image as he says he can see through the bullet holes man’s body
“Sort of inside out,”
This is almost childish description of the man’s body showing the speaker seems unable to process it in an adult way
“ and tosses his guts back into his lorry then he’s carted off in the back of a lorry,”
Two very casual cold actions showing no respect for the dead man tosses and culture of make it sound as if the body is a piece of rubbish
“End of the story except not really,”
Turning point (Volta) as the speakers mood changes
“His blood shadow stays on the streets,”
A visual reminder of the death it foreshadows that memories will haunt him
Both war and home is discussed in the same stanza
Shows how war pollutes and intrudes soldiers home life’s
“Possibly armed possibly not,” repeated st the end
Shows that he’s replaying the event in his mind
“Dug in behind enemy lines”
The metaphor compares the memory stuck in his mind to a soldier in a trench
“ some distant sun stunned sand smothered land”
The bottom parts of the compound and adjectives, stern and smog show how the places affected by war the long line in the sibilance slow the pace and reflect the speakers lack of clea thought
“His bloody life,”
He’s talking about the man’s blood, but also swearing and anger
“In my bloody hands,”
shows there’s no collective responsibility now and he feels completely responsible.
There is a possible reference to Macbeth as the evolution hits the speaker has been unbalanced by his guilt as lady Macbeth was
Remains: starts in medias res
Res indicates a series of traumatic incidences
