readings for 3/20

I believe that it is very smart to look into the history encorporated in text, because then you get a deeper understanding of the message being created. The poem "The White House: by Claude McKay was very interesting. It goes to show the questions you need to ask yourself about the history being used such as what is the "decent street" or "letter of your law."

The death of the Ball Turret Gunner~ I think that the beginning of the poem can have many meanings, but I it seems as if the child is finally able to relax a little bit and tried to get in a comfortable position such as the fetal position. Then just eventhough they are so close to the ground the plane gets attacked and the child dies. I use the word child because the narrator mentions his mothers sleep, but the person is actually a grown-up and probably a man. This poem makes you think of nighttime because he mentions "nightmare fighters." It is understandale that the word hunched is used in this poem, because the area he is in is small and circular, definately very cramped! The last sentence being washed out with a hose sounds awful as if the other people did not care for his body after he had gone or that he had been so destroyed it was the only way to get him out. Either way, it just sounds awful to be used like that after death. The author Randall Jarrell was unable to fly because he did not qualify, so he probably used writing to get out his desires to want to be able to fly. Its interesting how he was viewed as a critic in his writing, and he has obvious mental/emotional problems in his later life after trying to commit suicide, and other things.