the gun - vicki feaver

Question 1

five irregular stanzas

Answer 1

lack of comforting predictability as well as the idea of transgressing boundaries

discomfort

Question 2

caesura

Answer 2

unsettling, ominous rhythm

Question 3

enjambment

Answer 3

gradual progression into corruption of power

no control

Question 4

‘bringing a gun into a house changes it.’

Answer 4

is it good or bad change?

juxtaposition

ambiguous

Question 5

‘you lay it on the kitchen table’

Answer 5

homely and domestic imagery

gentle

Question 6

‘stretched out like something dead’

Answer 6

simile

irony - it can kill

‘stretched out’ - arrogant, masculine connotations

Question 7

‘jutting over the edge’

Answer 7

intrusive

taking it too far?

hard consonants

Question 8

‘casting a grey shadow on the green checked cloth’

Answer 8

ominous, dull, lifeless

allusion to magic

homely

‘green’ symbolises rebirth and health

Question 9

‘at first it’s just practice’

Answer 9

temporal deixis

start

‘just’ - qualifier

justify, lessen something

Question 10

‘perforating tins, dangling on orange string’

Answer 10

rhyme - harmony?

happy colours or caution?

Question 11

‘then a rabbit shot clean through the head’

Answer 11

temporal deixis

‘rabbit’ - innocence and peace

done quickly

Question 12

‘soon the fridge fills with creatures’

Answer 12

temporal deixis

fricative alliteration - harshness of actions

out of control - addiction - insatiable

Question 13

‘run and flown’

Answer 13

power of life

Question 14

‘your hands reek of gun oil’

Answer 14

sensory imagery

stuck on you - addiction

Question 15

‘trample fur and feathers’

Answer 15

careless, aggressive

fricative alliteration

primitive instincts

Question 16

‘spring in your step’

Answer 16

happy

new life - ironic - rebirth through death

Question 17

‘your eyes gleam like when sex was fresh’

Answer 17

predators killing

intimate - intense

Question 18

‘a gun brings a house alive’

Answer 18

no enjambment

certainty

positive

ironic - kills things

Question 19

‘i join in the cooking: jointing and slicing, stirring’

Answer 19

sibilance - sinister

part of it - perspective has changed

no pity

Question 20

‘excited as if the king of death has arrived to feast

Answer 20

death is exciting

simile - celebrating death

power of violence

Question 21

‘stalking out of the winter woods’

Answer 21

predatory - threat - unwanted

alliteration

death = winter

Question 22

‘black mouth sprouting golden crocuses’

Answer 22

death

gothic imagery

rebirth

death brings life - irony

crocuses are poisonous - darkness

Question 23

headlines

Answer 23

violence can create obsession

addiction can be pleasurable

there can be no rebirth with death

anyone can succumb to evil

power can corrupt

the attraction of violence alters behaviour

power can make one careless

the effect of violence on a household