the poems ‘war photographer’ and ‘remains’ have a theme of power throughout them in many different way whether it be guilt,conflict,memory,etc… during this essay i will be identifying the similarities or differences between these interpretations and will give my opinion.the poem war photographer presumably follows a man who earns his wage by photographing war devastated environments.and remains is a first hand written poem that speaks about a guard of some sort that shoots a looter,the poem then goes on to explaining how it effected him mentally and physically.
the power of responsibility is shown in war photographer when the author writes “he a priest preparing to intone a mass”. the author gets it across to the audience that the war photographers job comes with alot of responsibility by comparing him to a priest preparing to intone a mass.it also touches on the power of guilt as it is very clear that he doesn’t like what he sees as a result of his photos but he continues.
very similarly,in remains the line “possibly armed possibly not” defines the amount of authority he has as he clearly has the power to open fire on a suspect without being a hundred percent on whether they are a threat or not. having a job that comes along with this much authority and power would mean that your job would therefore be a responsibility in its self. the fact that his intentions could of been to protect himself and the other possibly endangered civilians could be quite a valid argument however the use of the world ‘possibly’ confirms his level of authority as he can make assumptions without being punished.
another power that can be identified in the poem ‘war photographer’ is conflict.
this can be seen in the line ‘a hundred agonies in black and white’.the use of the word ‘agony’ shows that he shows empathy for the diseased soldiers and could possibly feel guilty for the fact that his job is to capture them at their worst. the guilt could also come from the fact that he knows once he brings all the photos back to the publisher, only a few photos will be selected meaning only a few of the diseased soldiers will gain credit, also meaning that all the other soldiers and their efforts will be dismissed.
on
June 12, 2016 at 5:44 pm
Kyro, the ideas are good here and there is room for development. You haven’t, however, written 1,000 words and you need to keep going with this to get the Comparison badge.