Chainsaw Versus The Pampas Grass

Question 1

“It seemed an unlikely match”

Answer 1

• False determination creates an element of uncertainty

Question 2

“Grinding its teeth”

Answer 2

• Personification emphasises anger and emotion

Question 3

“Swung nose-down”

Answer 3

• Violent Imagery : suppression of anger
• Enjambment : emphasises movement as uncontainable

Question 4

“Knocked back a quarter-pint of engine oil”

Answer 4

• Personification of Chainsaw : emphasises loutish and rough demeanour
• Colloquial use of stereotypical, outdated masculine language

Question 5

“Juices ran from its joints and threads, oozed”

Answer 5

• Pun : adrenaline seeping out, emphasises uncontrollable nature
• Personification of human anatomy (physicality)
• Excessive nature of violence and energy

Question 6

“Weightless wreckage of wasps and flies mothballed in spider’s wool…”

Answer 6

• Alliteration emphasises the animalistic imagery : sense of abandonment
• Ellipsis : build up of tension

Question 7

“Like powder from a keg”

Answer 7

• Simile emphasises the violent, explosive nature
• Emphasises build up of anticipation
• Forceful / extremity in nature

Question 8

“Then walked” / “Then walked again”

Answer 8

• Syntactic parallelism : emphasises monotonous task and the futility
• Repetitive nature is ritualistic

Question 9

“Gunned the trigger”

Answer 9

• Hyperbole : over-violent and excessive

Question 10

STANZA 2

Answer 10

• Repetitive / cyclical nature emphasises the excessive verbosity of violence
• Listing of events undermines the meaning of the action - monotonous

Question 11

“Just an instant rage”

Answer 11

• Personification of short clause reflects the violence : impulsiveness and brute force
• Instantaneous burst of emotion : bestial, primitive

Question 12

“The rush of metal lashing out at air”

Answer 12

• Personification of violent imagery emphasises a lack of control
• Futile as it is unprovoked and ineffectual against the air

Question 13

“To tangle with cloth, or jewellery, or hair.”

Answer 13

• Polysyndetic Listing : stereotypes of women emphasising masculinity v femininity

Question 14

“It’s bloody desire, it sweet tooth”

Answer 14

• Anaphoric Repetition : emphasises gluttonous desire - sinful / violent

Question 15

“And felt the hundred beats per second drumming in it’s heart” / “and felt the drive-wheel gargle in its throat”

Answer 15

• Anaphoric repetition : symbolises adrenaline for violence
• Personification builds up tension, fast paced
• Violence is intrinsic

Question 16

“The pampas grass with its ludicrous feathers”

Answer 16

• Hyperbole : mocking and silly emphasising pejorative and judgemental nature
• Motif of elegance : flamboyant / diva

STRUCTURE : reduced description in comparison to chainsaw emphasising inferior nature

Question 17

“Sunning itself, Stealing the show with it’s footstools, cushions and tufts and its twelve-foot spears”

Answer 17

• Polysyndetic Listing : emphasises ordinary everyday items, creates irony
• Element of grandiose
• Jealous undertone

Question 18

“Sledgehammer taken to crack the nut” / “Overkill”

Answer 18

• Verbose use of force : overkill

Question 19

“Or a pitchfork to lever it out at its base”

Answer 19

• Motif of masculinity : empty male violence is excessive and unnecessary
• Comical effect - cartoonish nature

Question 20

“Swooned”

Answer 20

• Stereotypes of women : presented as overly emotional
• Element of distress for men

Question 21

“This was a game”

Answer 21

• Sadistic enjoyment of destruction

Question 22

“Carved” / “Spat” / “Ripped into pockets of dark, secret warmth”

Answer 22

• Motif of violence
• Phallic imagery : potentially symbolic of rape and abusive against women
• Emphasises the over-excessive violence, intrusive and exploitation

Question 23

“Severed or felled or torn”

Answer 23

• Polysyndetic listing : emphasises violent imagery and excessive violence

Question 24

“Like cutting at water or air with a knife”

Answer 24

• Simile : emphasises the force of nature - damage is ineffective and pointless
• Parallels earlier in poem - pointlessness of violence

Question 25

“In the weeks that came new shoots like asparagus tips sprang up from its nest”

Answer 25

• Simile : comedic / ironic - emphasises the power and strength of nature. Power of women

Question 26

“Corn in Egypt”

Answer 26

• Allusion - promise to resolve famine. Speaker is the villain.

Question 27

“I looked on from the upstairs window like the midday moon”

Answer 27

• Simile : detachment / hopelessness
• Final attempt at asserting superiority emphasises out of sync nature of speaker denial
• Sense of loss

Question 28

“Back below the stairs on its hook the chainsaw seethed”

Answer 28

• Cyclical nature of poem : goes back to its place of origin emphasising futile nature of the act
• Personification : extremity of rage, sense of injustice
• Contrasts height of the grass, now inferior to it

Question 29

“Man-made dreams”

Answer 29

• Direct reference to masculinity emphasising masculine violence being taught. Anger/frustration. Dreams being ineffective and pointless

Question 30

“Seamless urge to persist was as far as it got”

Answer 30

• Motif of violence : critical of masculine violence = futile and unfulfilled
• STRUCTURE : smaller sentences emphasise withering and diminishment of chainsaw (inferior)