Shooting Stars Analysis Carol Ann Duffyt free essay sample

Shooting Star – Carol Ann Duffy The poem Shooting Stars by Carol Ann Duffy tells a shocking story of a female prisoner held by Nazis in a concentration camp around the time of the Holocaust. The poem is set in 1940, Hitler and his Nazi party had taken control of most of Europe and had vowed to exterminate the entire Jewish race. Duffys haunting use of imagery and word choice make this poem so memorable and its very strong opening prepares the reader for the rest of the poem. The title choice, Shooting Stars is a very effective and ambiguous.The first meaning is that the word ‘Stars’ represents the Jewish symbol in which is The Star of David. Jewish people were forced to wear them on their clothes to mark them out as targets of abuse and torment for Nazis. Another possible meaning of the title is metaphorically symbolising a literal shooting star and comparing it to the life of the Jewish prisoners. The Jews life is similar to the shooting star in the way that their life and potential was bright and brilliant but was cut short.The title stays with the reader and is reinforced by its clever use of alliteration and also reinforces the fact that any death, no matter how small, is still heroic and brave. The poem begins with After I no longer speak they break our fingers to salvage my wedding ring. Duffy opens the poem by using shock tactics which catch the reader’s attention and also prepares us for the rest of the poem. This spoken by a dead Jewish woman is a shocking description telling how the Germans would take anything valuable off the Jewish women and how they value jewellery more than human life.The word Salvage is usually used to mean saving useful parts of something which is being disposed of, the associations of this word clearly indicates the lack of respect and care the Germans had for the dead Jewish bodies. The persona comes across as a heroine, for the reader because she attempts to give the reader a list of the names in which we have believed to of passed away â€Å"Rebecca Rachel Ruth Aaron Emmanuel David† All these names used are stereotypical Jewish family names.In addition Duffy has also not used any punctuation whilst listing them possibly to highlight the fact the list goes on and on due to the mass killing of the Jewish race and the ignorance and lack of care from the Germans. â€Å"Mourn for the daughters, upright as statues, brave. † Not only men were dying, but women and children too. It forces the readers to question themselves, and put themselves in the personas place and question whether we would be as brave. † ‘upright as a statue’? This tells us that these people were strong before they died they were not quavering and falling about they kept their dignity.In addition this highlights how the persona was continuing to act as a heroic fig ure within the poem. The bravery of the persona continues throughout the poem. â€Å"You would not look at me. You waited for the bullet. † The single word sentence emphasises the sudden and disturbing death which the persona has to witness. The dark tone and brutal graphic imagery used by Duffy brings the reader into the situation which creates a strong feeling of hatred toward the German soldiers in which are doing this to innocent Jewish women.The persona will not let the reader forget â€Å"I say Remember. Remember these appalling days which make the world  for ever bad† Repetition of the word ‘Remember’ impacts and addresses the reader personally. In addition the repetition of Remember echoes in our head like a guilty conscience, the last dying word of a fellow human being at the hands of incompetent young men. The way in which Duffy says â€Å"which will for ever make the world bad† Indicates that no matter what, this brutal behaviour and these actions have already occurred.Furthermore nothing anyone does will erase what has happened to the innocent Jews, which impacts on how the world will almost be forever tainted as sometimes being a bad place. After the brutality that has already occurred Duffy continues to bring in more imagery whilst describing the persona getting raped. Although Duffy narrows into the rape at first with a subtle manor by saying â€Å"One saw I was alive. Loosened his belt. † The enjambment between ‘loosened’ and ‘belt’ draws the attention to the horrific fact that this woman is actually about to be raped. Duffy goes about it in a very subtle way, but the graphic description we get next is enough to make anyone feel the sheer impact of what has just occurred. The horror of what is happening to the poor innocent Jew continues as Duffy says â€Å"My bowels opened in a ragged gape of fear† I believe this is one of the lines in the poem which has most impact toward the reader. The long vowel sounds and the graphic imagery of the event is etched into your mind.The single word ‘gape’ mirrors the word rape which leaves the horrific image in the readers head of what is happening to the Jewish girl and it makes you empathise with her situation. â€Å"I could see a child† the soldiers had no morals, the meaning of right and wrong had been torn away from the soldiers and acts of brutality were happening to women and children. â€Å"I shot her in the eye† Duffy says this so carelessly within the poem to highlight just how carelessly the soldiers shot the innocent child in the eye.In addition links with the clear horrific imagery Duffy is using whilst building up toward the main event of the poem which is the murdering of the persona. The unashamed soldiers continue their horrific acts and take no notice of what they are actually doing to the once living human beings around them. â€Å"young men gossiping and smoking by the graves† His total disrespect for the dead Jews again will make the reader sympathise with Duffy’s persona, and drew my attention towards her bravery and how she held on, no matter what happened to her.What happens next is devastating. The persona tells how â€Å"her bare feet felt the earth and urine trickled down my legs until I heard the click. Not yet. A trick. † Duffy shows how it’s almost as if the soldiers were playing a game, mocking the persona and thriving off how weak she is. Furthermore the horrific imagery produced by Duffy for the pour lifeless persona lying on the ground after everything that has happened to her. Which links with the next line how no matter what is happening to the persona she still holds on to her religion which is inspirational.Which shows true faith due to the situation in which she is in, she hasn’t given up. The persona doesn’t even begin to question her faith which highlights how she is a truly heroic character. â€Å"Tell them I sang the ancient psalms at dusk inside the wire and strong men wept. † She tells of how her psalms made strong men weep. Her story is terrible and sad, but she will never let us forget. Her final lines echo the words of the 25th  psalm â€Å"Turn thee  unto me with mercy, for I am desolate and lost. The persona is finally telling the reader of how she is ‘desolate and lost’, a sad and reflective ending which makes the persona seem nostalgic but also everlasting, her voice echoes in our heads. The persona left it until the end as the dignity and true belief in her religion kept her strong in one of the worst situations in which any human being could be placed in. Shooting Stars’ is a story of heroic life being destroyed and taken away by guiltless soldiers who believe what they are doing is for the good of their country.The poem is told differently as it does not tell the fanciful tales of the glory of the war, it tells it how it is. It tells of the real heroic people of the world, the innocent blood of women and children, pooling on the ground in countries like Iraq and Bosnia, and Duffy lets the reader know that these events are still goi ng on and ‘The world turns in its sleep’ as if we do not care and forget the terrible events which happened. But Duffy says we must Remember and her haunting words from the grave will never be forgotten. We will not forget.