MBJ+BS

Question 1

In MBJ, what is the effect of the “w” alliteration in the phrase “If you continue to pamper and paw him, you will turn him into something altogether weak and watery…”?

Answer 1

w’ alliteration makes whimpering sound, infantilizes him, men supposed to have stiff upper lip

Question 2

what is significant about speaking about “bolts” and “solid steel” when John is naked?

which poem in the anthology is this similar to?

Answer 2

demonstrates mechanisation of warfare compared with John’s vulnerable, naked, myopic body

Gibson goes from outside’s “bark of guns” to “breathing of [a] little child”, amplifying minuscule significance of one human in comparison

Question 3

In MBJ, what is significant about kiplings lines: “it’s just a preliminary canter” “Your performance this afternoon is very important” and “buck up now”?

Answer 3

as if being paraded in an equestrian event just before the show, litotes- large understatement about the war, trivialises the situation making it seem not much more than a game like Jessie Pope.

Question 4

Kipling compares soldiers to Gods “willing to sacrifice everything and deliver mankind from evil” (links to the Lord’s prayer “deliver us from evil”). Which poem did he write that links to this?

Answer 4

in “The Verdicts” Kipling compares them to “demi-Gods” as if they’re the greats like Perseus and are memorialised as heroes and mythologised

Question 5

Haig presents the soldiers as Christ like figures with the ritual of WHAT?

Answer 5

f washing each other’s feet Stage directions- “Doyle gently rubs Bowe’s feet and starts to powder them” like Jesus did John 13:1–17

Question 6

• “I wish I could be in your shoes now. I wish I could share with you that clean honourable task which is ahead of you” which poem is the idea of cleanliness also present in?

Answer 6

idea of cleanliness also in Peace by Brooke with “swimmers into cleanness leaping” as if war is a baptismal event in which one is cleansed, and brought into a holy community

Question 7

what does rudyard ask bowe, showing he was naive about the war?

Answer 7

“did he seem … pleased to be there?”

Question 8

In birdsong, what is being in the tunnel, and then coming out of the tunnel mimetic of, and what is the significance of this scene?

Answer 8

In the tunnel, mimetic of being in the war, there is a hatred of the Germans- Stephen using a hatred of them to fuel himself to keep Jack alive. However, in coming out of the tunnel (out of the war) there is a scene of reconciliation between the two sides, as seen when Stephen and Levi exchange gifts of memorabilia, and bury an Englishman, Jack, next to a German, levis brother, in the same grave.

Question 9

In rudyard’s propaganda speech, what is the significance of saying the soil is “squashed and squeezed”?

Answer 9

as if soil is victim- hyperbole of damage of war

Question 10

what does rudyard say in his propaganda speeh which is litotes of fighting in war?

Answer 10

“pernicious minority who do not intend to inconvenience themselves” conscientious objectors- litotes of fighting in war being a mere “inconvenience”

Question 11

In Kipling’s propaganda speech, he refers to “riot and arson and disorder and starvation and bloodshed” in which the syndetic list has cumulative effect. Which other patriotic poem uses this same device?

Answer 11

also used in Peace to demonstrate how life improves after war by contrasting 2 syndetic lists- Before war was “old and cold and weary” whereas the war makes “matched us with His hour, and caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping.” there is a contrast between these two triplets.

Question 12

What does bowe say that demonstrates the wa was not what it was made out to be? which wilfred owen poem notes this also?

Answer 12

“France is s’posed to be a hotter, drier place, isn’t it, an’ its ice cold”

Dulce et decorum est notes this deceptive idealistic presentation of the home front vs reality when saying “if…you too could pace behind the wagon that we flung him in…you would not tell with such high zest…the old lie: dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”

Question 13

Hibbert in a journeys end pretends neuroglia so he doesn’t have to go over the top. Who does something similar in MBJ, and what do they do?

Answer 13

(Stage directions- “desperate…shouting”) Bowe has panic attack before over the top and tries to leave

Question 14

In MBJ, “your organs are open to the elements” is graphic like what poem?

Answer 14

dulce et decorum est

Question 15

Before Jack goes over the top, he has fragmented speech before he’s fragmented physically. What does Haig attempt to do here?

Answer 15

Haig’s way of making audience turn against jingoism of men like Rudyard. Idealism vs realism= Rudyard’s vs John’s speech.

Question 16

In Birdsong, Jack’s “back was supported by a wooden cross”. What does this imply?

Answer 16

as if he’d already dead/ in his grave. Reminds us of crucifixion- he sacrifices himself for his country. Foreshadows his death

Question 17

In Birdsong, when theres a boy having a fit, his eyes are described in detail :“spasmodic opening of the eye…no red tracery of blood vessels”. Which owen poem are the eyes also described and why?

Answer 17

Dulce also describes “white eyes writhing in his face”. Eyes are personal- windows to soul- more emotive death.

Question 18

In Birdsong’s prologue , it says “what I have seen is impassable”. How does this link to MBJ?

Answer 18

damaged sight in warfare, present in Jack

Question 19

what is the significance of the phrase “The explosion went of…it was like a wave breaking”?

Answer 19

waves erode the coastline like the explosion erodes Ellis’s moral/spirit. Rudyard Kipling also used wave imagery in his poem “My Boy Jack” to give the effect of drowning out fathers hope of finding his son

Question 20

what is the significance of the phrase “the world had been dislocated”

Answer 20

links to the physical injury of the soldiers with “dislocation”, the world is also feeling the physical pain of the soldiers. Dislocation disenables, causes pain and prevents use suggesting that of the world

Question 21

What is the significance of the phrase “The boys’ mouth opened in silent protest”

Answer 21

screaming in silence showing soldiers voices were not heard- at home they glossed over the losses of war.

Question 22

In MBJ, there’s an ironic contrast with the home front and trenches, as Rudyard says “a file exploded without warning”. How does this link to Birdsong?

Answer 22

ironic contrast also in birdsong- she sipped dangerously…from the Styrofoam cup”

“my bob was taken poorly Saturday night…only indigestion as it turned out”

Question 23

In both MBJ and BS, characters use a trilogy of words to show they miss home, what are the quotes to support this?

Answer 23

Firebrace: “That’s all we think of. Home, home, home” in letter to Margaret.

In MBJ Jack thinks, with a trilogy “Elsie. Mother. Daddo.”

Question 24

In BS, Ageing effects of war shown through Stephen going prematurely grey. How does this link to MBJ?

Answer 24

Jack had “grown a moustache and looks much older”

Question 25

When Elizabeth goes to visit the war memorial, what does she say that trivialises the death of the soldiers?

Answer 25

all the “endless writing” is like “the sky had been papered in footnotes” (the word “footnotes” trivialises the death)

Question 26

What does stephen say that demonstrates the universal impacts of war?

Answer 26

Stephen said it seemed “the pattern of the seasons, of night and day, was gone” showing the universal impact of war- what he has seen makes him question whether the immovable patterns of life can continue, such is the enormity of war.

Question 27

Notion of history repeating itself present in both MBJ and Birdsong, how so?

Answer 27

Elizabeth was born to a woman who was born out of an affair, and the novel ends with Elizabeth giving birth to a child born out of an affair. demonstrates how history repeats itself, leaving the message of remember the mistakes of the past.

MBJ ends with the beginning of the second world war.

Overall message to remember the war/Lest we forget.