We lived happily after the war

Question 1

Protest vs boom

Answer 1

And when they bombed other people’s houses we protested’
- ‘they’ - indicates an undefined enemy which could apply to any era or nation
- ‘we’ - a plural pronoun presenting how the narrator is an onlooker identifies with the victims or may be implicated the reader into teh situation furthering intrigue
- ‘protested’ - given it’s own line to show importance/conflict of speakers emotional state
- comaprison of ‘protest’ and ‘bombed’ - magnitude of bombed is much larger, fits into theme of poem of not enough

Question 2

havent i given enough

Answer 2

‘protested/but not enough, we opposed them but not/enough’
- immediate negation of ‘protested’ but not enough shows anxiety and guilt the narrator is trying to supress
- repetition of ‘not enough’, which has been enjambed to suggest ongoing unease
- jump from ‘protested’ to ‘opposed’ and repetition of ‘not enough’ displays Kaminskys guilt

Question 3

god bed the usa!

Answer 3

‘I was/in my bed, around my bed America/was falling:’
- ‘bed’ - connotations of comfort and relaxation presents the complacenet nature of Americans
- could also be seen as narrator trying to block out thoughts of violence and guilt by reverting to a comforting environment
- colon after falling creates a caesura or pause, reinforcing the significance of the word

Question 4

invisible

Answer 4

invisible house by invisible house by invisible house’
- ‘invisible’ repetition puts emphasis on the complacency of the Americans as they are blind to their pain (includes narrator)
- ‘invisible house’ - can also represent the moral destruction of America (LNK ‘falling’ as America is falling in moral abyss)

Question 5

sun and chair

Answer 5

I took a chair and watched the sun’
- transition from ‘we’ to ‘I’ shows the focus is now on the individual and individual responsibility
- ‘sun’ has connotations of light and life contrasting the ‘bombed’
- ‘watched’ - has connotations of being passive which further present narrator complacency

Question 6

$$$

Answer 6

‘the house of money/In the street of money in the city of money in the country of money, our great country of money’
- use of ascending list shows how everyone is complicit, not just the government
- ‘money’ repetition shows the focus of America is on prosperity and wealth rather than moral fulfilness
- ‘house of money’ - shows the above and how it is the culture of America as each house is like that
- ‘great country of money’ - play on political slogan make America great again, mokcing the slogan as depicts America as greedy and selfish

Question 7

title of the poem

Answer 7

we (forgive us) lived happily during the war’
- repeats title of the poem to reinforce ironic moral message, disregard of moral responsbility
- ‘forgive’ is in present tense comapred to ‘lived’ in past shows the guilt has remained long after the war ended