The Colonel
“What you have heard is true.” (Line 1) War stories are often told in books and more often depicted in motion pictures. Whatever the case is we all know what war is about but yet we the lucky few that have yet to experience it have no idea what it really is. Carolyn Forche brilliantly captures her war experience in the poem “The Colonel”, it is so blunt that one could easily mistake it for something else. The poem paints a really straightforward view into a simple scene that allows us a small window into the lives of people at war. There’s no fairytale ending and there’s no hero to immortalize here, it’s a dirty ugly picture that portrays the effects of war and how drastically it affects the lives of those involved. It is true that …show more content…
The poem begins slowly with an inventory of facts and details as if it was about something neighborly. “His wife carried a tray of coffee and sugar. His daughter filed her nails, his son went out for the night” (1-2). The mundane details of the colonel’s life like his wife, his children, and his western luxurious life made him seem normal. No one would ever suspect that a killer lived in the very same house Forche visited, as the setting encounter seemed very domestic and gave us a feeling of homeliness. However, the poem begins to change into a darker side as Forche mentions the pistol on the cushion. This gave a sense of indication that something was wrong, as if the Colonel was not even safe in his own house. It seemed like he had to protect himself at all …show more content…
He spilled many human ears on the table. They were like dried peach halves. There is no other way to say this. He took one of them in his hands, shook it in our faces, dropped it into a water glass. It came alive there.” (20-25). This was the climax of the poem, because one moment everyone was sitting eating dinner and the next, ears were being poured out of a grocery bag onto the table. This was vivid proof of the Colonels heinous acts, which is very sickening. The ears were cut off from once-living people as bounty/trophies to show that they killed them. There was neither compassion nor mercy shown by the colonel and his actions. “I am tired of fooling around he said. As for the rights of anyone, tell your people they can go fuck themselves.” (26-31). This was a clear indication that he was just a cruel and barbaric person. One wonders how someone can turn out to be like that, is it a matter of choice? Or is the colonel and his actions a product of circumstance? I believe that it is a combination of
“What you have heard is true.” (Line 1) War stories are often told in books and more often depicted in motion pictures. Whatever the case is we all know what war is about but yet we the lucky few that have yet to experience it have no idea what it really is. Carolyn Forche brilliantly captures her war experience in the poem “The Colonel”, it is so blunt that one could easily mistake it for something else. The poem paints a really straightforward view into a simple scene that allows us a small window into the lives of people at war. There’s no fairytale ending and there’s no hero to immortalize here, it’s a dirty ugly picture that portrays the effects of war and how drastically it affects the lives of those involved. It is true that …show more content…
The poem begins slowly with an inventory of facts and details as if it was about something neighborly. “His wife carried a tray of coffee and sugar. His daughter filed her nails, his son went out for the night” (1-2). The mundane details of the colonel’s life like his wife, his children, and his western luxurious life made him seem normal. No one would ever suspect that a killer lived in the very same house Forche visited, as the setting encounter seemed very domestic and gave us a feeling of homeliness. However, the poem begins to change into a darker side as Forche mentions the pistol on the cushion. This gave a sense of indication that something was wrong, as if the Colonel was not even safe in his own house. It seemed like he had to protect himself at all …show more content…
He spilled many human ears on the table. They were like dried peach halves. There is no other way to say this. He took one of them in his hands, shook it in our faces, dropped it into a water glass. It came alive there.” (20-25). This was the climax of the poem, because one moment everyone was sitting eating dinner and the next, ears were being poured out of a grocery bag onto the table. This was vivid proof of the Colonels heinous acts, which is very sickening. The ears were cut off from once-living people as bounty/trophies to show that they killed them. There was neither compassion nor mercy shown by the colonel and his actions. “I am tired of fooling around he said. As for the rights of anyone, tell your people they can go fuck themselves.” (26-31). This was a clear indication that he was just a cruel and barbaric person. One wonders how someone can turn out to be like that, is it a matter of choice? Or is the colonel and his actions a product of circumstance? I believe that it is a combination of