Remains And War Photographer

Question 1

Pair remains with…

Answer 1

War photographer

Question 2

Comparison points

Answer 2

Similarity
1. War is inescapable (traumatic, guilt always plays on the minds of the survivors of war)

Similarity
2. War is graphic, violent, horrific

Difference
3. Different perspectives (remains is an account from a soldier who has no choice but to fight in war, War Photographer is an account from a photographer who chooses to be there as their job) DEMONSTRATES THE DIFFERENT EFFECTS WAR HAS ON DIFFERENT PEOPLE FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

Question 3

Evidence for comparison point 1 -

Answer 3

War is inescapable (traumatic, guilt always plays in the minds of the storyteller)

Remains :

‘probably armed, possibly not’ X2
Shows soldier often replays it in his head and the fact that he may have shot an unarmed looter haunts him.
Repetition implies doubt.

‘End of story, except not really’
Indicates that he is traumatised by the experience and it has a detrimental effect on him.

‘His blood shadow stays on the street’
Implies there is a permanent reminder of his horrific deed, haunting. METAPHOR, IMAGERY.

‘drink and drugs won’t flush him out’
Nothing will make the haunting thought go away. Alliteration further strengthens the idea that nothing will make it go away.

‘he’s here in my head when I close my eyes’
Traumatic, METAPHOR for haunting.

‘His bloody life in my bloody hands’
Guilt, Guilt, Guilt! METAPHOR.

War Photographer :

‘Spools of suffering set out in ordered rows’
Traumatic images for the photographer to handle, alliteration.

‘which did not tremble then but seem to now’
Trembling implies fear and trauma

‘A hundred agonies’
Photographer has to prepare ‘agonies’, which must be traumatising

Question 4

Evidence for comparison point 2 :

Answer 4

War is graphic, violent, horrific

Remains :

‘Image of agony’
Horrific imagery

‘tosses his guts back in his body’
Gruesome

‘I see every round as it rips through his life’
Graphic descriptions and SIMILE

CONTEXT : Armitage often uses humour in his poems, and in this poem he explores the PTSD of a soldier who experienced horrific scenarios in war. The seriousness of this poem therefore demonstrates how graphic and violent the war is.

War Photographer :

‘spools of suffering’
Suffering is caused by violence and horror

‘explode beneath the feet of running children in a nightmare’
Horrific imagery, absolutely horrific that children are blown up

‘He remembers the cries of this mans wife’
Brutal, grim

‘Blood stained’

CONTEXT : It was a friend who was a war photographer who inspired Duffy to write about the gruesome experiences of a war photographer

Question 5

Evidence for comparison 3

Answer 5

Different perspectives. One of a soldier who is forced to be in war and has no choice, and one where the war photographer has a choice to be there for their job. DEMONSTRATES THE DIFFERENT EFFECTS WAR HAS ON DIFFERENT PEOPLE FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

Remains :

‘On another occasion we get sent out’
Forced to go and commit murder

‘I walk right over it week after week’
Constantly reminded of the trauma

War Photographer :

‘He has a job to do’
Perspective of a worker

‘In his darkroom, finally alone’
Traumatised by today’s work’s experience