Remains Flashcards
Who wrote remains and when
Simon armitage in 2008
Summary of remains
The poem is about a soldier who is haunted by his involvement in a shooting of a bank looter. It also explores the repercussions of war for individuals and raises awareness of PTSD.
Key themes in remains
Guilt , effects of war on a person, PTSD
Context for remains
-the Iraq war with its controversial reasons for invasion and its deeply divisive nature serves as an implicit backdrop to the poem , the experience of British and American soldiers have often had to make split second judgments about whether individuals are innocent or not
-armitage wanted to explore the psychological effects of war, particularly PTSD, he understood that you suffer from a distortion of reality as they struggle to distinguish between past trauma and present reality
-also shown as a critique of the glorification of war in popular culture as it is portrayed as a noble endeavour to fight for justice,freedom and honour, however remains shows the brutality and moral ambiguity inherent in war. The realities of war are far more complex and damaging than what’s portrayed in the media and be political leader
Structure and form of remains
-use of free verse reflects the disorder and chaos of both the speakers thoughts and the events of war, the disjointed irregular nature of the lines mirrors the speakers shattered sense of self and distrust of memory
-colloquial language is used to emphasise the banality of violence in the context of war, by using straightforward almost detached language, armitage strips away any sense of glorification of heroism that might surround this topic
-lack of punctuation is used to reflect the run on thoughts and disruption of the speakers internal dialogue as his mind is unable to fully process or contain the memories and emotions they evoke
Key quotes for remains
‘His bloody life in my bloody hands ‘
‘Dug in behind enemy lines’
‘His blood shadow stays on the street’
‘Probably armed possibly not’
Analyse quote ‘his bloody life in my bloody hands’
-repetition of the word “bloody” reinforces the central theme of guilt and violence that permeates the poem, it serves as a symbol of violence and also guilt, the speakers hands are tainted with irrevocable responsibility for the death of another person, this could like with Macbeth
-this reflects the PTSD that many veterans experience showing that the atrocities of war do not end when the conflict is over instead it becomes a permanent part of who they are
Analyse quote ‘dug in behind enemy lines’
-could be read a metaphor for the soldiers inability to move past the events they witness and participated in, their is a profound sense of entrapment
-military term ‘dug’ shows how army life follows him even when he’s home he can’t communicate in regular civilian terms, could also convey the sense of immobility and entrapment as if the soldier is unable to escape the situation reflecting the powerlessness and vulnerability that soldiers feel in the chaos of war
Analyse quote ‘his blood shadow stays on the street’
-seen as a psychological manifestation of the speaker’s guilt over his part in the death of the looter
-“stays “ shows how the speaker is unable to move on from the past, perpetually revisiting the moment if violence, the speaker is trapped in a cycle of remorse and regret, this inability to move forward its powerful commentary on the lasting psychological damage of war
-“the street” a typical neutral and mundane location becomes a site of profound moral and emotional significance, it has become a symbolic stage where the speakers moral conflict plays out
Analyse quote ‘probably armed possibly not’
-“probably and “possibly “ reveal the inherent moral ambiguity of the situation, the speaker is unable to definitively know whether the man they shot was armed or not, the line therefore encapsulates the tension between their duty as a soldier and the reality of their actions
-this phrase underscores the dehumanising effects of violence where the human in question is reduced to a mere possibility rather than a clear distinct person
-repeated later on connect past to present
-the speakers uncertainty points to the lack of clear cut answer in the fog of war where right of wrong is blurred and the psychological scars of soldiers are shaped by their ambiguous actions
