the gun - vicki feaver Flashcards
five irregular stanzas
lack of comforting predictability as well as the idea of transgressing boundaries
discomfort
caesura
unsettling, ominous rhythm
enjambment
gradual progression into corruption of power
no control
‘bringing a gun into a house changes it.’
is it good or bad change?
juxtaposition
ambiguous
‘you lay it on the kitchen table’
homely and domestic imagery
gentle
‘stretched out like something dead’
simile
irony - it can kill
‘stretched out’ - arrogant, masculine connotations
‘jutting over the edge’
intrusive
taking it too far?
hard consonants
‘casting a grey shadow on the green checked cloth’
ominous, dull, lifeless
allusion to magic
homely
‘green’ symbolises rebirth and health
‘at first it’s just practice’
temporal deixis
start
‘just’ - qualifier
justify, lessen something
‘perforating tins, dangling on orange string’
rhyme - harmony?
happy colours or caution?
‘then a rabbit shot clean through the head’
temporal deixis
‘rabbit’ - innocence and peace
done quickly
‘soon the fridge fills with creatures’
temporal deixis
fricative alliteration - harshness of actions
out of control - addiction - insatiable
‘run and flown’
power of life
‘your hands reek of gun oil’
sensory imagery
stuck on you - addiction
‘trample fur and feathers’
careless, aggressive
fricative alliteration
primitive instincts
‘spring in your step’
happy
new life - ironic - rebirth through death
‘your eyes gleam like when sex was fresh’
predators killing
intimate - intense
‘a gun brings a house alive’
no enjambment
certainty
positive
ironic - kills things
‘i join in the cooking: jointing and slicing, stirring’
sibilance - sinister
part of it - perspective has changed
no pity
‘excited as if the king of death has arrived to feast
death is exciting
simile - celebrating death
power of violence
‘stalking out of the winter woods’
predatory - threat - unwanted
alliteration
death = winter
‘black mouth sprouting golden crocuses’
death
gothic imagery
rebirth
death brings life - irony
crocuses are poisonous - darkness
headlines
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
