Point of View
The writer offers a social point of view. As he personally experienced the devastating effects of America’s herbicidal warfare, his tone is angry and accusatory, as seen in the exclamations “potpourri!” and “spray!”, as well as the uppercase word “WILL”. He probably felt that he was “betrayed” by his own country after serving it for so long. As he is directly involved in what is happening in the poem, he is reliable in interpreting the situation. The purpose of the poem is to highlight the atrocities of the war and to evoke empathy for the victims of the war.
Situation and Setting
The historical setting is that during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971, during the herbicidal warfare program by the U.S. military. The tension is produced through the use of strongly negative diction such as “death potpourri”, “deceit”, “omnipotent”, “nefariously” and “execrable”, finally coming to the climax “Generations untold WILL pay”. This shows that there is no resolution to the conflict. The function of the setting is to reinforce the theme that the “wars aren’t over when the wars are over”.
Language/ Diction
Theme
The meaning of the poem is explicitly conveyed. The central idea raised is that “wars often last for years, and the effects reverberate for decades”. The poem’s theme is significant and universal in its application, in that the destruction caused by wars far outweighs its benefits.
Language
Figurative language is used, such as the metaphor “death potpourri”. “Potpourri” originally means a mixed collection of dried petals, thus signifying the confusion and chaos caused by all the “colourful” chemicals. The language is used to reveal the truth, thus it is quite explicit and straightforward. The strong diction used to criticise the indiscriminate acts of the U.S. military, together with the emphasis on certain words such as “potpourri!”, “spray!’ and “WILL”, is effective in conveying the meaning of the poem.
Sounds
The writer uses end rhymes such as “foresee” and “potpourri”, “price” and “twice”, “unborn” and “mourn”, “dead” and “spread”, as well as “astray”, “pay” and “spray”. The writer also uses the assonance of the long ‘o’ vowel sound, such as “potpourri”, “unborn, “mourn” and “orange”, which sounds like the crying, howling and mourning of the victims of the war.
Style and Tone
The writer’s tone is accusatory, thus making the mood of the poem heavy and serious. However, the title of the poem “Rainbow Death” carries a little irony, as instead of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, there is death and suffering. This adds some bitter humour to the depressing topic of war.
Personal Response
What qualities does the poem evoke in you as a reader?
After reading the poem, I feel that though wars might be “glorious”, the after-effects of war are almost always detrimental. The rationale for fighting the Vietnam War is to “choose a great evil in order to ward off a greater evil”. However, is spraying innocent civilians with contaminants just?
What is your historical and cultural distance from the poem?
The distance between our world and the world of the poem may not be so distant. We are living in an age of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, where the decision of a political leader on the other side of the planet may take us all to the verge of universal destruction. This brings to question: Are wars even necessary?
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Term 2 HBL Task 1
Rainbow Death
Hubert Wilson
America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.
Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!
During the Vietnam War, between 1962 and 1971, the United States military sprayed 20,000,000 gallons of chemical herbicides and defoliants in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, as part of Operation Ranch Hand. Agent Orange is the code name for one of the chemicals used. The program's aim was to defoliate forested and rural land, depriving guerrillas of cover; as well as to force peasants to move into the city as they would not be able to support themselves in the countryside, thus weakening the rural support base of the Viet Cong.
According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4.8 million Vietnamese were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 people being killed or maimed, and 500,000 children born with birth defects. Children affected have multiple health problems, including cleft palate, mental disabilities, hernias, and extra fingers and toes. High levels of dioxin were found in the breast milk of South Vietnamese women, and in the blood of U.S. soldiers who had served in the Vietnam War.
The poet, Hubert Wilson, is a Vietnam War veteran who served in the USAF Security Service. In 1970, he was assigned to Shemya Island as an intelligence analyst, where Agent Orange was used extensively. After 20 to 30 years since the initial exposure to the toxin, his central nervous system radically deteriorated with Parkinsonian-type tremors, severe headaches and progressive limb pains. Due to his mobility issues and that his brain is still functioning well, he decided to turn to writing.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html
Hubert Wilson
America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.
Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!
During the Vietnam War, between 1962 and 1971, the United States military sprayed 20,000,000 gallons of chemical herbicides and defoliants in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, as part of Operation Ranch Hand. Agent Orange is the code name for one of the chemicals used. The program's aim was to defoliate forested and rural land, depriving guerrillas of cover; as well as to force peasants to move into the city as they would not be able to support themselves in the countryside, thus weakening the rural support base of the Viet Cong.
According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4.8 million Vietnamese were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 people being killed or maimed, and 500,000 children born with birth defects. Children affected have multiple health problems, including cleft palate, mental disabilities, hernias, and extra fingers and toes. High levels of dioxin were found in the breast milk of South Vietnamese women, and in the blood of U.S. soldiers who had served in the Vietnam War.
The poet, Hubert Wilson, is a Vietnam War veteran who served in the USAF Security Service. In 1970, he was assigned to Shemya Island as an intelligence analyst, where Agent Orange was used extensively. After 20 to 30 years since the initial exposure to the toxin, his central nervous system radically deteriorated with Parkinsonian-type tremors, severe headaches and progressive limb pains. Due to his mobility issues and that his brain is still functioning well, he decided to turn to writing.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Term 2 Lesson 4: War - Living Hell
Dear Diary,
I suspect I do not have much time. I can hear the crumbling of my neighbouring apartment as a mortar shell from a German tank hit it squarely. I can hear the angry roar of the raging fire, the shattering of glass windows, the collapsing of wooden rafters, all so close yet seem so remote. The scalding heat radiating from the glowing red-hot walls, make it all the more impossible to write…
It all started three years ago in 1940, when the Nazis concentrated us into the Warsaw Ghetto. Thus marked the beginning of the nightmare we can never wake up. The tall walls surrounding the ghetto completely cut off our contacts with the outside world. People were afraid to leave their homes, but German bullets reached them through the windows. The Jews, spat upon and slaughtered without even the slightest cause, lived in constant apprehension. One was never treated as a human being. I once saw with my own eyes a pregnant woman tripping while crossing the street. A German shot her there and then.
Hunger raged in the ghetto. One can often see six-year-old boys risking a bullet from a policeman to crawl through barbed wire, in order to obtain food "on the other side". Every morning, funeral carts collected more than a dozen corpses on the streets. Spotted fever also became rampant. All hospitals were overwhelmed. Thousands were dying and they were viewed impatiently -- let them die quicker for the next one! The grave-diggers simply could not dig fast enough…
The membrane in my throat feels so dry… No, I must concentrate…
When the first report that approximately 100,000 Jews had died in the Chelmno gas chambers reached us, people tried to convince themselves that it was not true. A normal human being is simply unable to conceive that a difference in eye or hair colour is a sufficient cause for murder. Then the mass deportations to the Treblinka extermination camp, under the guise of “resettlement to the East", began. People were forced out of their houses before being squeezed into waiting railway cars and sent to their deaths. The crowd was so thick that it has to be mashed in with rifle butts. No words of human language are strong enough to describe this mass murder.
We had to fight back.
This morning, platoons of Germans and armoured vehicles entered the ghetto and assembled at the streets. There was a moment of silence. The Germans smirked haughtily. Suddenly, hand grenades began exploding over their heads while machine gun shots rang through the air. Rifle shots sealed their escape routes. From every window bullets sought hated German hearts. Two tanks were destroyed by our incendiary bottles. German dead littered the streets. When the soldiers approached the apartments, mines exploded under their feet. Warsaw Ghetto could not be taken.
Then, the Germans began throwing flamethrowers at the houses block by block. Broken glass, together with the pavement, melted into a black sticky liquid. The stench of charred bodies was on every street. We were beaten by the flames, not the Germans!
Oh, the light just went out. The electricity supply must be cut. Let me light a candle… I can hear vigorous banging on my door. My time is running out. If you (if there are any “you” later on reading this) miraculously recover this diary, please, remember the atrocity of the Nazis and keep the memory of our comrades alive, forever. The lock is shot at. I grabbed my trusty pistol. A rifle butt smashed against the door. At this time, I would have preferred being offered cyanide, but I shall fight. We shall hit them just as badly as they hit us. Goodbye, my hypothetical friend…
I suspect I do not have much time. I can hear the crumbling of my neighbouring apartment as a mortar shell from a German tank hit it squarely. I can hear the angry roar of the raging fire, the shattering of glass windows, the collapsing of wooden rafters, all so close yet seem so remote. The scalding heat radiating from the glowing red-hot walls, make it all the more impossible to write…
It all started three years ago in 1940, when the Nazis concentrated us into the Warsaw Ghetto. Thus marked the beginning of the nightmare we can never wake up. The tall walls surrounding the ghetto completely cut off our contacts with the outside world. People were afraid to leave their homes, but German bullets reached them through the windows. The Jews, spat upon and slaughtered without even the slightest cause, lived in constant apprehension. One was never treated as a human being. I once saw with my own eyes a pregnant woman tripping while crossing the street. A German shot her there and then.
Hunger raged in the ghetto. One can often see six-year-old boys risking a bullet from a policeman to crawl through barbed wire, in order to obtain food "on the other side". Every morning, funeral carts collected more than a dozen corpses on the streets. Spotted fever also became rampant. All hospitals were overwhelmed. Thousands were dying and they were viewed impatiently -- let them die quicker for the next one! The grave-diggers simply could not dig fast enough…
The membrane in my throat feels so dry… No, I must concentrate…
When the first report that approximately 100,000 Jews had died in the Chelmno gas chambers reached us, people tried to convince themselves that it was not true. A normal human being is simply unable to conceive that a difference in eye or hair colour is a sufficient cause for murder. Then the mass deportations to the Treblinka extermination camp, under the guise of “resettlement to the East", began. People were forced out of their houses before being squeezed into waiting railway cars and sent to their deaths. The crowd was so thick that it has to be mashed in with rifle butts. No words of human language are strong enough to describe this mass murder.
We had to fight back.
This morning, platoons of Germans and armoured vehicles entered the ghetto and assembled at the streets. There was a moment of silence. The Germans smirked haughtily. Suddenly, hand grenades began exploding over their heads while machine gun shots rang through the air. Rifle shots sealed their escape routes. From every window bullets sought hated German hearts. Two tanks were destroyed by our incendiary bottles. German dead littered the streets. When the soldiers approached the apartments, mines exploded under their feet. Warsaw Ghetto could not be taken.
Then, the Germans began throwing flamethrowers at the houses block by block. Broken glass, together with the pavement, melted into a black sticky liquid. The stench of charred bodies was on every street. We were beaten by the flames, not the Germans!
Oh, the light just went out. The electricity supply must be cut. Let me light a candle… I can hear vigorous banging on my door. My time is running out. If you (if there are any “you” later on reading this) miraculously recover this diary, please, remember the atrocity of the Nazis and keep the memory of our comrades alive, forever. The lock is shot at. I grabbed my trusty pistol. A rifle butt smashed against the door. At this time, I would have preferred being offered cyanide, but I shall fight. We shall hit them just as badly as they hit us. Goodbye, my hypothetical friend…
David
Member of ZOB Resistance Group
Death before Dishonour
Member of ZOB Resistance Group
Death before Dishonour
Monday, May 9, 2011
Term 2 Lesson 3: War - A Journey In History
World War II is a global military conflict from 1939 to 1945, involving two opposing powers, the Allies and the Axis. It is the most widespread war in history, with over 100 million military personnel involved.
Many view World War II as a continuation of World War I. They believe that the Versailles Treaty, drafted at the end of World War I, failed to establish the parameters which may have prevented the Second. The treaty was neither lenient enough to appease Germany, nor harsh enough to prevent it from becoming the dominant global power again. Hitler also advanced the idea that Germany would have triumphed if not for the German Revolution at home, thus convincing people that a Second World War would be winnable. The 1939 German invasion of Poland led to the outbreak of the war.
Another cause is that Japan lacks extensive natural resources. Japan had been completely shut out from the European colonies, thus to avoid economic strangulation, Japan was determined to dominate the Asian market. Therefore, Japan invaded China in 1937, the largest source of raw materials, and kick-started World War II. The Great Depression in the 1930s also played a part. The depression affected Germany greatly, second only to the United States. Severe unemployment led people to support the Nazis, which had been losing favor, thus contributing directly to the rise of Hitler.
The war ended with the victory of the Allies over Germany and Japan in 1945. Germany surrendered after the capture of Berlin and Hitler’s suicide, while Japan surrendered after the United States dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The United Nations (UN) was set up to foster international cooperation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, leading to the Cold War which lasted for the next 46 years. At the same time, the influence of the European powers began to decline with the decolonisation of Asia and Africa.
World War II is the deadliest war in history, resulting in 50 million to more than 70 million deaths. Many of the deaths were caused by war crimes, including The Holocaust, in which the Nazis killed approximately six million Jews and five million others who were deemed “unworthy of life”. The most well-known Japanese war crime was the Nanking Massacre, in which several hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered.
The mass-bombing of civilian areas in the German cities of Dresden, Hamburg, and Cologne by the Allies resulted in more than 600,000 deaths. The nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in immediate deaths of approximately 200,000 people, mostly civilians. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of radiation sickness.
No other venue like wars allows people to kill each other in such huge numbers. Wars often take years to develop, last for years, and the effects reverberate for decades.
Can World War II be justified morally? We can agree that World War II is the closest thing to a just war in modern times. However, the means to achieve it were horrifying. The nuclear bombings were justified as taking fewer Japanese and American lives than would have been lost in an invasion. However, is a war fought between soldiers and innocent civilians just? In an age of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, would whatever good that is aimed for, such as freedom, be rendered meaningless through near universal destruction and thus unredeemable evil? Are wars even necessary?
Many view World War II as a continuation of World War I. They believe that the Versailles Treaty, drafted at the end of World War I, failed to establish the parameters which may have prevented the Second. The treaty was neither lenient enough to appease Germany, nor harsh enough to prevent it from becoming the dominant global power again. Hitler also advanced the idea that Germany would have triumphed if not for the German Revolution at home, thus convincing people that a Second World War would be winnable. The 1939 German invasion of Poland led to the outbreak of the war.
Another cause is that Japan lacks extensive natural resources. Japan had been completely shut out from the European colonies, thus to avoid economic strangulation, Japan was determined to dominate the Asian market. Therefore, Japan invaded China in 1937, the largest source of raw materials, and kick-started World War II. The Great Depression in the 1930s also played a part. The depression affected Germany greatly, second only to the United States. Severe unemployment led people to support the Nazis, which had been losing favor, thus contributing directly to the rise of Hitler.
The war ended with the victory of the Allies over Germany and Japan in 1945. Germany surrendered after the capture of Berlin and Hitler’s suicide, while Japan surrendered after the United States dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The United Nations (UN) was set up to foster international cooperation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, leading to the Cold War which lasted for the next 46 years. At the same time, the influence of the European powers began to decline with the decolonisation of Asia and Africa.
World War II is the deadliest war in history, resulting in 50 million to more than 70 million deaths. Many of the deaths were caused by war crimes, including The Holocaust, in which the Nazis killed approximately six million Jews and five million others who were deemed “unworthy of life”. The most well-known Japanese war crime was the Nanking Massacre, in which several hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered.
The mass-bombing of civilian areas in the German cities of Dresden, Hamburg, and Cologne by the Allies resulted in more than 600,000 deaths. The nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in immediate deaths of approximately 200,000 people, mostly civilians. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of radiation sickness.
No other venue like wars allows people to kill each other in such huge numbers. Wars often take years to develop, last for years, and the effects reverberate for decades.
Can World War II be justified morally? We can agree that World War II is the closest thing to a just war in modern times. However, the means to achieve it were horrifying. The nuclear bombings were justified as taking fewer Japanese and American lives than would have been lost in an invasion. However, is a war fought between soldiers and innocent civilians just? In an age of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, would whatever good that is aimed for, such as freedom, be rendered meaningless through near universal destruction and thus unredeemable evil? Are wars even necessary?
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