Analysis Of The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner

Imagine a dogfight. Planes howling, bombs roaring, bullets bounding through the air. Picture being caged in a ball turret, an exhibit of inevitable death, shooting aimlessly into the sky, fighting purely in vain for a cause you have no attachment to. This was the case for many soldiers in the second World War-mere boys sent off to fight for a governing body that did not even regard them as humans. This was the harsh realization that people “back home” had. As a result, many were outraged, and sought to protest the “State.” For example, Randall Jarrell, in his anti-war poem “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” inserts a juxtaposing subtext that accentuates the ironic cycle of life for young, conscripted soldiers in order to denounce the …show more content…
For example, he uses the word “fell” to describe the descent of the character. This specific word choice conjures the image of trees being senselessly felled for the sole benefit of loggers. Thus implying that the almighty “State” (the metaphorical logger), dehumanizes its soldiers into far less tangible trees – that which are plentiful, expendable, and, most of all, not human. Moreover, in order to further create brutal images of the government, Jarrell paints an ironic picture by way of the deliberate word choice in the title. For instance, the title of the poem reads, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner.” In addition to allowing readers to envision the character’s harsh environment, Jarrell presents death in a round, spherical object (the ball turret). This paradoxical image illustrates the ball turret as both a womb, the hearth of conception, and a tomb, the hearth of the dead. These juxtaposing associations exacerbate the “State’s” indifference and dehumanization of its own soldiers, elucidating to readers the cruel, superficial abuse of power by the government that sends its younglings to die in vain in the heavens above. Therefore, as these images present themselves, readers immediately begin to formulate devilish thoughts of the government, the brief living hell experienced by young soldiers, and the inevitable, indifferent damnation of the …show more content…
The brief loop that is the soldier’s life comes to an end, and he is “[washed out] of the turret with a hose.” The turret is sanitized only for the State to dispatch the next gunner to its death; the next soldier’s death flight will begin very shortly thereafter, and the seemingly endless cycle will rumble on without bound. This cynical cycle fully exposes the State’s lack of regard for human life. It doesn’t see a dead man in the turret, but rather an unoccupied weapon that is hindering its war effort unless reloaded by another body. All throughout the piece, Jarrell explores the paradoxical concepts of death, flight, and identity in this context of war. Ironically, flying does not bring freedom but rather death--and death births liberation. The soldier regains his humanity via his death. By omitting the gunner’s name, Jarrell reveals the systematic dehumanization of soldiers as they are lacking one of the things that makes us humans. Our identity. Blending these themes creates the effect of an exposé, informing the public of the malfeasance of the