The Gun by Vicki Feaver Flashcards
Title : “The Gun”
Monosyllabic - mimics the sound of a gun
Immediate sense of violence, danger and power
Ominous title have readers feel somewhat apprehensive
Personification of the gun
Negative connotations
Themes
-Power ideas about power of humans over nature, and then different individuals over each other either through masculine ideas or societal ranking
-Life and death
-Excitement
-Fear
-Gender: Guns are typically seen as a more masculine idea and associated with traditionally masculine ideas, so this presentation in contrast against feminine imagery could be seen as showing conflict between genders
-Conflict
Structure
Lines vary in length showing instability brought by a gun
-change in the opening two lines could be seen as supported by the ever-changing line length and stanza length throughout the poem
-punctuation helps to shape the rhythm and can be interpreted as creating the sound of shooting and bullets
-The use of colons acts as a strong caesura and ‘jars’ the poem’s flow and rhythm, which could be interpreted as showing the unnatural impact that guns and killing has on the world.
Alternatively, it could be seen as showing nervousness and apprehension, with the narrator not convinced about the specific ideas and scenes they are describing
-Enjambment show the loss of control - the gun can’t be contained
-semantic field of death and guns works simultaneously with specific sounds to help reinforce the destructive imagery and highlight the power of guns
Context
This poem is about Feaver’s own personal experience; she recollects the time when her husband brought home a gun. It was only when her own husband purchased a gun and brought it home did her attitude towards guns change.
First lines:
“Bringing a gun into the house changes it.”
-Enjambment from first lines to first stanza shows the rapid change visually as you can see the change in lines and audibly as you can’t help but to pause when reading the lines.
-Enjambment is used in the first two lines, with the split of the line between “house” and “changes” immediately drawing the eye and opening the poem with an unnatural break.
-Separation of this line from the other stanzas indicate how the gun does not fit into the home
Stanza 1
‘You lay it on the kitchen table, stretched out like something dead itself:..”
‘grey shadow’ and ‘long mental barrel’
‘grey shadow’ and ‘green-checked cloth’
-The use of Caesura in the middle of the sentence could be symbolic of the abrupt and unpredictable power of the gun
-Pronoun ‘You’ makes readers seem at fault
-Simile ‘Stretched out like something dead itself’ personifies the gun as something to be at ease with and creates irony as the gun is an inanimate object that causes death and is being personified as a living being/animal playing dead.
-‘kitchen table’ - juxtaposition of domestic vs industrial
-Ominous feelings
-The gun acts as a phallic symbol - In psychoanalytic theory, a phallic symbol is any pointed or upright object which may represent the phallus or penis. - Highlights masculine energy overpowering female energy
-juxtaposition
Stanza 2
‘At first it’s just practice:’
‘trees in the garden.’
‘Then a rabbit shot clean through the head.’
-‘At first’ - indicates the progression of violence that will later be revealed to the readers
-The colon enforces the apprehension amongst the readers and alludes to a drastic escalation of the use of the gun - Colon indicates factual narration and acts as a tool to create a sinister tone
-casual attitude is expressed by the speaker and suggests to the reader that the speaker may think that the gun is harmless. Here, using the gun almost sounds like a hobby which is creates a callous undertone in the poem and contrasts with this sensitive topic.
-The ‘trees in the garden’ represent nature and the gun that disrupts the natural because of its power.
-oxymoron in shot clean to be shot is not a clean act but the shooter is skilled.
-Inanimate object used to discard life
-Shows the speakers desensitisation as the atmosphere she is living in has changed her - cold detached tone
The clipped line and enjambment enact a sense of fear and tension, creating
a sense of abruptness which renders the eponymous gun more threatening.
The of the pronoun ‘it’ creates an ambiguity around whether the house or
the gun changes, furthering this sense of suspense.
This line renders the speaker passive, creating a sense of inexorability. The
‘kitchen table’ is usually a symbol of warmth and domesticity; this is
subverted by the alien, invasive gun.
The verb ‘stretched’ personifies the gun as something relaxed and at ease .; it
dominates the domestic setting. However, the lexical choice ‘dead’
emphasises how the gun does not possess intrinsic power; it must be wielded
by someone. The pronoun ‘itself’ personifies the gun, and the enjambment
emphasises is significance and how it cannot go unnoticed.
The adjective ‘grainy’ suggests the impurity of the gun and how it
metaphorically taints the house. That it is ‘polished’ insinuates the
speaker’s fascination with it: they are absorbed by the eponymous gun. The
phonetically harsh verb ‘jutting’ suggests the invasiveness of the gun and its
transgression of boundaries. The ‘edge’ of the table can be read as a
metaphor for the boundaries of societal norms; therefore, that the gun - a
metonym for the male figure - protrude slightly over it implies that, at first,
his transgressions are trivial, perhaps minor instances of physical abuse.
We might read the ‘long metal barrel’ as a phallic symbol for male
dominance and masculinity. The spectral image of a ‘grey shadow’
suggests that the male figure is at this point a liminal threat; however, the
noun shadow implies his latent capacity for malevolence and destruction.
The temporal phrase ‘at first’ is ominous and adumbrates more overt,
threatening acts of violence. There is a clear transition in the subjects of
the violence - the ‘tins’ are something empty and insentient, and the verb
‘perforating’ suggests the gun is merely making punctures rather than
destroying the tins. The ‘orange string’ is an image of vibrance and a
transferred epithet for the ironic excitement using the gun creates. This
sense of irony is furthered by the contrast of the mechanical gun to the
organic setting, adding to the alien and invasive nature of the gun.
This blunt, unadorned declarative is unexpected and stark, and marks a
transition from the latent power of the gun to its ability to abruptly end
life. The adjective ‘clean’ is ironic, suggesting the act of violence is an
achievement or something to be proud of.
Stanza 3
‘Soon the fridge fills with creatures that have run and flown’
‘Your hands reek of gun oil. And entrails. You trample fur and feathers.’
‘Your eyes gleam like when sex was fresh’
-The pleasure of killing is counterbalanced by the awareness of the brutality of the act.
-‘Soon’ - Time frame changed
-‘run and flown’ - Past tense - no longer able to run as they are dead - no longer able to flow and exercise their agency over their own actions which is further emphasised through cesura in stanza (lack of flow)
-Symbolic of having blood on her hands the guilt of the killing translated into violent imagery suggesting the obsession and addiction to the gun and the thrill she gets from it.
-Poet strips away humanity from speaker and her husband
Freshness vs Decay
To describe “sex” as “fresh” adds an animalistic tone to the description, possibly evoking images of raw meat considering the previous descriptions of butchered animals.
‘A gun brings a house alive.’
SIMILE - image of a gun physically or spiritually bringing ‘a house alive’ personifies this inanimate object that has the potential to cause so much damage. This line is rather ironic because guns never preserve, nurture or ‘bring’ life in anyway – they do quite the opposite, yet here the speaker describes it as being able to bring life.
Ironic as the house is only alive due to dead animals
tone shifts and becomes slightly provocative
Stanza 4
‘‘I join in the cooking: jointing and slicing, stirring and tasting’
‘King of Death’
‘Stalking out of winters woods’
‘His black mouth sprouting golden crocuses.’
-poet’s use of alliteration and sibilance in these present participles produces a soft hissing sound similar to a snake, almost like the snake that tempted Adam and Eve to eat from the forbidden garden. In this case, the ‘snake’ would be the gun that is tempting this couple to embrace their new obtained power. The soft, hissing sound creates a sinister tone
-Highlights duality of women
Animalistic energy
Bustle of movement
-the gun is personified and is described as the ‘King of Death’ which has connotations associated with hell.
-The specific choice of a male title feeds into the traditional view of masculine power, which combines with traditional indications of power to present the idea of death as one which has an almost supernatural ability. The mix of the idea of royalty also gives an interesting twist to the poem, perhaps encouraging a reader to consider the social aspects and how the rich and powerful are more advantaged.
-The animalistic verb ‘stalking’ introduces the reader to the idea bout how guns are able to pursue life, similar to how a predator in the wild would purse its prey.
- Crocuses are beautiful and vibrant flowers that appear beautiful but this is only to deceive the one admiring them. Crocuses are actually poisonous flowers and are completely toxic. This could introduces the much explored theme of appearance and reality. In this case, this ‘polished’ gun may appear enticing as it may make one feel safer and secure – however, in reality, guns are toxic as any consequences that they produce are absolutely negative.
Nuance
-This poem could represent the primitive nature of humans
-Sadism
-Man and nature
-Masculinity
Agenda
- There are ideas about power of humans over nature, and then different individuals over each other either through masculine ideas or societal ranking.
-Guns are typically seen as a more masculine idea and associated with traditionally masculine ideas, so this presentation in contrast against feminine imagery could be seen as showing conflict between genders. However there is not a clear divide between genders in this poem due to the lack of specification, perhaps demonstrating that both are responsible.
-The inclusion of weaponry and death inevitably leads to the theme of conflict, with the semantic field a strong contributor to the development of this idea. References to a “house” could also help the poem be interpreted as looking at conflicts within households.
