The Gun

Question 1

Summarise ‘The Gun’

Question 2

‘Bringing a gun into a…’

Answer 2

‘house changes it’
- use of mono stitch to isolate the line from the rest of the poem, emphasises her point and draws attention to it
- almost juxtaposition of ‘gun’ and ‘house’ has connotations of transgression
- ‘it’ could be the literal meaning of the house or it could be referring to their relationship and the atmosphere surrounding it

Question 3

‘You lay it…’

Answer 3

‘on the kitchen table’
- use of second person places us in the perspective of the gun owner, direct address makes it quite accusatory
- Feaver could be addressing the reader or the husband
- ‘kitchen is a stereotypical womanly place, idea of him intruding on her personal space with the gun

Question 4

‘Stretched out like…’

Answer 4

‘something dead’
- simile gives the gun negative connotations suggesting we should be afraid of it
- suggestion of the gun being lifelike or alive; it would have to had been alive to look like it’s dead
- foreshadowing of the death to come later on in the poem

Question 5

‘The grainy polished…’
compared to
‘The green…’

Answer 5

‘wood stock’
‘checked cloth’
- stark contrast to each other, idea of the green cloth being quite homely and like a safety blanket and the gun destroying that
- ‘green’ colour has connotations of nature

Question 6

‘casting a…’

Answer 6

‘grey shadow’
- idea of the negativity of the object spreading into the house
- also literal image of a shadow being cast from the gun

Question 7

‘At first it’s…’

Answer 7

‘just practice’
- casual attitude has a callous undertone which contrasts with the sensitive topic
- idea of the speaker not understanding the seriousness of the gun as she’s talking about it as if it’s a hobby

Question 8

‘dangling on an…’

Answer 8

‘orange string’
- ‘orange’ is a secondary colour which suggest the gun hasn’t reached its full potential / extremity hasn’t been reached
- also idea of it being a warning referring to traffic lights due to the previous mention of ‘green’ and now the mention of ‘orange’

Question 9

‘then a rabbit shot…’

Answer 9

‘clean through the head’
- volta, the speaker changes from being afraid of guns to embracing the violence and death it brings
- ‘rabbit’ has connotations of innocence and fragility suggesting that guns ruin this
- ‘clean’ suggests the speaker is good at hunting and shooting which could also be why they decided to embrace using the gun

Question 10

‘soon the fridge…’

Answer 10

‘filled with creatures’
- enjambent shows how the speaker is losing control, may be going mentally insane
- pleasure of killing is counter balanced by the awareness of the brutality of their act

Question 11

‘your hands reek…’

Answer 11

‘of gun oil’
- symbolic of her having blood on her hands from killing
- ‘reek’ powerful description that emphasises the amount of deaths she carries

Question 12

‘there’s a spring…’

Answer 12

‘in your step’
- idea of the gun having a positive impact on him psychologically and giving him confidence
- sense of excitement that is linked to the sex (later mentioned) they first had in their relationship, idea of a honeymoon period

Question 13

‘your eyes gleam…’

Answer 13

‘like when sex was fresh’
- tone shift, provocative and sexual connotations