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Giuseppe - Roderick Ford - Coggle Diagram
Giuseppe - Roderick Ford
Themes + Quotes
Violence
- "was Butchered on the dry and dusty ground' - Violent verb associated with killing, Enjambement undermines the action of the slaughter due to the easy flow. Emphaises on the letter D, intense constanant.
- "While her throat was cut" - Disturbing imagery, own line wants to be seen. Quick death, short line emphaisizes quick and brutal death. "cut" could be an onomatopoeia as you can almost hear it
- "But she screamed like a woman in terrible fear" - Similie emphaisises humanity, showing her emotions. Can't talk can only scream.
Death
- 'put her head and her hands/ in a box for burial' alliteration creates a draggy sound showing a carelessness for her body, however her having a 'box for burial' (coffin) re-humanises her which contradicts the monster she is made out to be
- 'someone tried to take her wedding ring/, but others stopped him' ironic - they deny her humanity despite proof of a human system, gives the idea of their limits of morality, even though she is dead.
- 'my uncle, the aquarium keeper, said, but couldn't look me in the eye' aquarium symbolises prison (prison of war - concentration camp) which is a symbol of death in the wars. the fact he couldn't keep eye contact highlights guilt and regret - hints he wasn't a reliable source as he was also one in the wrong, showing the greater (war-connotation) meaning of the poem
Power
- "Starvation forgives men for many things" - Personifying starving; out of their control. Starvation is the ultimate power. Reference to God?
- "this was proof she was just a fish" - Doctor's scientific language allows him to brainwash the people around him into believing what they are doing is morally right. Use of 'proof' trying to legitimise actions
'They said a large fish had been found on the beach' conveys the killers' power over the camp, as they can lie to all the troops without questioning - can represent the lies told to the public during the war.
Poetic Techniques
- The confessional language and tone of the poem is very important, because it communicates the idea that the narrator's uncle wanted to share his story with someone in order to remove a burden
- Sadness permeates the poem, imparting the idea of longing for the story to be different and have a more positive outcome
- There is also a factual tone due to the simplicity of language (one simile in the entire poem) and this removes the oppuortunity for moral judgement to be held by the narrator, instead forcing the reader to make their own judgement
- The use of a mermaid is significant, firstly, in mythology they have unrivalled beauty, but also of their alluring voices which would make anyone who heard it enter a trance
- As a result of expected mythology, a silent mermaid would be highly unusual, perhaps representative of the destruction of the irreplaceable as a result of warfare
- Another key aspect is that the mermaid is used to symbolises the atrocities of war, but because there is no single clear interpretation of the mermaid, it suggest the reality of war has been so horrific that such symbolism was needed
Structure
- written in free verse, the structure helps to layer additional meaning into the poem in a story-like way
- The lack of specific rhythm or rhyme makes the poem sound more like something that would be naturally spoken aloud in conversation, therefore helping create a more personal connection to the poem
- The use of caesura to break up lines by pausing, makes it seem as if the narrator is reluctant and worried to continue sharing his story, knows what they did was potentially morally wrong
- Caesura particularly effective in the 2nd stanza "She, it, had never", as this is when the darker element of the story begins to unfold
- The use of enjambment creates and understanding for the reader of the relationship between Giuseppe and the mermaid and how his guilt has grown as time continued
- Enjambement also shows visual breaks in the story, which could be interpreted as representing the chaotic and confusing thought processes that lead to the killing of the 'mermaid' women
- The specific changes in line and sentence length helps to impact the pace of the poem, eg. the 5th stanza is 1 sentence split across 5 lines and the next stanza had only 1 sentence on 2 lines. This mix of pace helps to make the story and meaning become more confusing to a reader