Jarrel

A detailed Summary of Jarrel

Randall Jarrell was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1914. Jarrell earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Vanderbilt University. In 1942, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, but soon left the Air Corps for the army experience, which provided much material for his poetry. Some people might interpret their readings differently as to what the author of this writing was really trying to express when he wrote it. Knowing very little about the author, other than his name, I had a completely different interpretation of what Jarrells poem "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" meant. Having no background information on Jarrell and his views when he wrote that poem, my interpretation of that same poem, my interpretation of that same poem was based on my ideas and on what I understood of it by viewing it through my eyes.

The first time I read the poem, I thought about a baby inside the woman and when it is that the fetus is actually considered a form of life. Many people disagree on which period of time the fetus actually becomes someone with life. Some people believe that the baby has life since it starts forming in the woman's body. On the other hand, other people don't consider a baby insid

The way a writing is interpreted by the reader can vary a lot, depending on the knowledge of background information on the writing and its author. "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" is a poem that I comprehended as having a complete different meaning than that that the author intended it. Learning about the author and defining the terms in the poem helped me understand the meaning that the poem was intended to have when written by Randall Jarrell. Not knowing the kind of experiences Jarrel went through in the army made it hard for me to understand. After reading this poem, I wish never to have such dark experiences in my life. Reading the last sentence in the poem, "When they washed me of the turret with a hose," eliminates the chances of me even thinking about joining the army during war time.

After reading this same poem but with enough background information to understand the situation in which Jarrell was going through when he wrote it, my interpretation of the poem is based on what I know of the author and what I think he meant by writing this poem. The relation between the poem and Jarrell is that he is expressing his feelings on how he was seeing things when he was in the army. "From my mother's sleep I fell into the state"(2635), means that he was in a position where he had to be strong and brave to do whatever was necessary in time of war. He was already in a tight situation, and he felt trapped with no way out. Jarrell related his situation with his life inside his mom's body as a baby. Just like a baby has no way out until its time comes, Jarrell had to be in this situation until the fight during the war was over. "And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze"(2635); means that he revolved within the turret hunched upside-down in his little sphere. The position was unconfterble, but there was no way out. A baby cannot get out of the mom's stomach whenever it wants; neither could Jarrell could get out from the Plexiglas ball hanging on the bottom of the plane. Jarrell inside the sphere resembles the fetus in the womb. "Six m

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Approximate Word count = 1397
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English