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War is...
"For the Record" by Adrienne Rich and "The Death of the Ball Turret
Gunner" by Randall Jarrell best describe my views on war and peace. One of the poems
looks at how war affects everything, and the other poem shows how insignificant one’s
life is. Ironically, I believe that one cannot have peace without war so both of my
examples are concerning war.
"For the Record" is a poem that deals with the negativity of war. The title
implies that the author would like to set things straight and present the rundown of war.
In doing so, the poet has created a picture of disease, poverty, and despair. The issues
of war are related to the effect they have on nature, cities, and mankind. Throughout the
poem, the poet brings up the ill effects war has on nature, the damage war does to cities,
and the despair it brings upon human beings. It also indicates how much nature suffers in
the wake of war. This is best illustrated when the poet writes, "clouds and the stars
didn’t wage this war" (734 line 1). The poem also indicates that the rain had no
opinions, the mountain wasn’t taking sides, and the brooks didn’t give up any
information. This element of the poem displays the innocence nature has with war.
"The trees didn’t volunteer to be cut into boards"(734 line 28). The cities
are another element from this poem that suffer from wars. In the poem, it is indicated
that buildings were boarded up to keep people out, streets were on fire, homes became
filled with raw sewage and "the houses were not at war"(734 line 11). A third
element in the poem that must suffer with war is the people. The "homeless old women
and roaming children" (734 line 14) are also victims. They must live in the homes
with the poisoning fumes, and they are the ones that are kept out of the closed up
buildings.
"The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" by Randall Jarrell illustrates how
someone is worthless on the battlefield if they are dead. This just proves how sacrificing
or risking your life in a war is not valued. An army is like a bucket of water.
Death’s hand reaches into the bucket creating an emptiness, but as quick as Death
takes his hand out of the water, the once empty space is filled again. The poet tells his
reader how insignificant his life was dying for war where he writes, "When I died
they washed me out of the turret with a hose" (722 line 5).
My beliefs are that war devastates more than just the men who started it. It also hurts
the citizens and the environment. I also believe that the people involved in war who die
on the battlefields are easily replaceable; thus, their deaths are without a value.
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