Remains Flashcards
Context
Modern warfare includes wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and others in the east. Soldiers are posted in communities where they have to act as a judge and determine who is a threat. They have to make split second decision which affect them for the rest of their lives. PTSD is a common mental health problem that troubles the lives of ex service men and women
Plot
The speaker relays an experience he had when posted in an Eastern country. He shot a man that was raiding the bank and he remembers each bullet as it passed through the targets body. After the incident he revisits the scene, either for work or personal reasons, and his memories plague him as he is sent home on compassionate leave. He turns to substance abuse to try and numb the guilt.
Form
Monologue
Enjambment
Caesura
Structure
Loose internal rhyme
8 stanzas
Finishing couplet
Tone
Casual
Patriotic
Desensitised
Guilt
Frustration
Themes
Power of nature
Power of humans
Power of memory
War
Death
PTSD
First hand experience
Key Quotes-“ I see every round as it rips through his life”
Mimics flashback and ongoing visions due to PTSD as a violent metaphor is used to shock the reader. Also the image is complex and ambiguous as the looters life is lost as his body is violently assaulted. In addition to that, Ironically the soldiers actions rips through his own life as he too is deeply damaged by the event. His peace of mind is murdered. Also the first person confessional tone sees the speaker so engaged that he believes he sees every bullet leave the gun and enter the body. The word life suggests so much more than mere flesh and bone.
Key Quotes-“I see broad daylight on the other side”
Grotesque exaggeration of pain as it could refer to the daylight showing through the holes made by bullets in the looters body, emphasising the violence. Alternatively, it suggests that the looters life is ended and the light in his life is unreachable to anyone other than the soldier who fired the shot. Also it could refer to the insight that the soldier gained into what he had done the moment after the shot. The broad daylight is therefore a metaphor for self knowledge and awareness on the implications of war
Key Quotes-“His blood shadow stays… I walk right over it”
This indicates that the killing will haunt the soldiers future life day after day. Also the shadow is not only the physical place on the ground where the man was shot, but also the imprinted memory of him that will stay in the soldiers mind forever. This refers to PTSD as it is a mental problem that will trouble him for the rest of his life. Blood shadow is a compound noun forming a vivid description; Armitage uses his “poetic licence” to place words that help express his soul. Also walk implies that it is slow and torturous as people often report the inability to run from attacks or something that frightens them in dreams. This could suggest that his memories is the stuff of nightmares. Also a type of numb tone is displayed as it sems like an everyday thing that doesn’t even affect him anymore
Can compare to…
Exposure-Realities of war
Poppies-War imagery
War photographer-Realities of war
Bayonet charge- Realities of war
