NEB Grade:11 (English) 2.5 The Gift in Wartime - by Tran Mong Tu (Poems) Part- 2

 NEB Grade:11 (English) 2.5 The Gift in Wartime - by Tran Mong Tu (Poems) Part- 2                  

               

The Gift in Wartime: About the Poem

ü In the poem “The Gift in Wartime”, Tran addresses an absent person. For instance, as she says, “I offer you roses,” the person to whom she is speaking is not present and can neither hear nor understand what she is saying.

ü The speaker, who has to face the death of her beloved in a war, speaks directly to him, contrasting what she has to offer him—her lost youth and her lost dreams—to what he has to offer her, his death, his grave, his medals, and his shrapnel (fragments of a bomb, shell, or other object thrown out by an explosion).

Before Reading 

Answer these questions: 

a. Have you ever experienced the death of someone close to you ? If yes, how did you feel ? 

ü Yes, I have experienced the death of my aunt. Once, she fell from the bike as her only one son was driving. She was found unconscious and  her condition was more critical. We took take her to hospital immediately but it was useless as she had serious injury in her head. Suddenly there was a silence. We realized that she was no more. 

ü It was such a heart wrenching experience  of  my life which really shattered me and my family members.

b. Is war always destructive ? 

ü Yes, war is always destructive and it comes with the most harsh consequences among the people and the environment as well. It always has a severe and bitter effect not only on people, but also on the economy of countries, and environment. The economy of the countries breakdown resulting in hunger and unemployment. Soldiers lose their lives, leaving behind their family members helpless making their lives barren.  It has disastrous effects on nature and our life styles. Some long term effects of war are poisoned water supply, chemical intoxicants in our environment etc.

ü War and armed conflict has a lot of disastrous effect on our nature and daily lifestyle. Poisoned water supplies, soil erosion, chemical toxicity in our environment is often pointed as the long term results of these conflicts.

The Gift in Wartime: Summary

ü ‘The Gift in Wartime’  is a war poem with gloomy effects of war on the family members who have lost their near and dear ones in war through a woman’s  mourning  on the death of her husband in the war. 

ü The poem is written in a dramatic monologue form, where the speaker (a widow) addresses an unknown "you", who is in fact her (dead) husband. On the surface level it accounts what she gave to her husband as gifts, and in return what he gave her. She gave her gifts  her husbands such as rose on his grave, her wedding gown, her love, her youth and pleasant spring. In return, she received gifts like his medals, badges, his dead body, his blood stained uniform and smell of his enemy's blood.  These are gifts from 'war' itself. These are war's gifts not only to this woman, but to all those who lose their people in war.

ü Her husband is dead now. Therefore, his dead body also has been a gift to her. She ends her saying hopefully to meet him in their next life. She will keep the shrapnel as a token, which will help them know and recognize each other in next life. (Shrapnel-Little pieces of bomb)

ü Wars are not only terrible to widows or war survivors,  but they are terrible to whole of the humanity.

Theme of the poem

ü Memory of her dead husband

ü Mourning the sadness and futility of lives lost in war

ü Terrible tragedies of war

Context of the poem

ü The context of a conflict between Communist regime of North Vietnam and Southern allies, which began in 1954 and ended in 1975.

ü Sad and melancholy mood and depressing and heart broken tone.

Hopeful Ending 

ü The poem has hopeful positive ending. As she promises to meet her husband in their next life even if her heart is shattered at the time as she has deep love and devotion to him.

            

The Message

ü The clear message: War can never bring happiness. It only leads to ruins, death and destruction.

Major Literary Devices / Figurative langauge Used in This Poem:

ü The poet has used many literary devices in this poem. They are : Anaphora, Apostrophe, Metaphor, Irony, Imagery, etc.

ü Anaphora: Anaphora is the repetition of words or phrases in a group of sentences clauses or poetic lines, at the beginning of such structures. For example, in this poem, the first, third, and fifth stanzas start with phrase 'I offer you', and second, fourth and sixth stanzas start with 'You give me'.

ü Apostrophe: It is the direct address to a person who is not present or to an inanimate object. For example, in this poem we find the addressing her dead husband.

ü Metaphor: A metaphor is a figure of speech that is used to make a comparison between two things that are not alike, but have something in common. For example, in this poem the speaker compares her sadness to the clouds in her eyes on a summer day.

ü Irony: Irony takes place when the words mean opposite of their intended meaning. In this poem, when the speaker talks about gifts in war time, she is not speaking of a real gift, but of grief and loss. A grave or a shrapnel can never be gifts people would like or want. In fact such are the gifts of war and death. The title of this poem itself is ironic which refers to the gifts of war as pains, sorrows, losses, blood etc. to humans.

 üImagery: Imagery is a vivid form of description that appeals to reader's senses. It creates pictures or images in the reader's mind. Some important imageries used in poem are: roses, motionless body, eyes with no sight, shrapnel

Understanding the text…

Answer the following questions… 

a. Who is the speaker addressing and why can that person not hear or understand what she is saying ? 

The speaker is addressing an absent person or her husband. The person cannot hear or understand what she is saying because the person is no more or has already lost his life in the war field..

b. What can you infer about the speaker's feelings for the person addressed as "you" ?

I can infer that the speaker's feelings for the person addressed as 'you' is so deep and heart touching. He was her life, love and her life. She recollects him every moment in her life. She feels her life incomplete without him. Although he is no more in the world, she is still hopeful to meet him in their next life.

c. What is the speaker's attitude towards war ? 

The speaker's attitude towards war is quite bitter, negative, destructive and full of sadness. She has experienced the terrible war between America and Vietnam. She has lost the most lovable person of her life due to war. She has presented various negative aspects of the war in her poem

d. In what ways do you think this person's fate has affected the speaker ? 

This person’s (speaker's husband) fate has affected the speaker very much. Due to his ill fate, he became the victim and  lost his life in battle. Naturally, this has affected the speaker very badly. The ill-fate of the person has made her helpless, loveless and miserable.

e. What does the speaker promise at the end of the poem ? Why do you think the speaker does this ? 

The speaker promises to meet her lovable person in their next life at the end of the poem. She holds shrapnel as proof to show him the reason behind his death and their separation. According to her, it will help them to recognize each other. She promises because of her deep and honest love for him.

Reference to the context…

a. What is the theme of the poem ?

The major theme of this poem is the speaker’s nostalgic feelings for her husband who has lost his life in the battle due to her deep faith, love, affection, yearning, feelings etc towards him.

It also projects  inhumanity and cruelty of the war and its negative impacts over humans. It  never brings happiness for others rather only snatches the happiness of others inviting disparity and dark future for others. It only provides gifts as death, blood, pains, loss, sorrows, destruction, downfall etc.

b. What imagery from the poem made the greatest impression on and why ?

The imagery is a literary device to represent things through the use of images. The poet has used several powerful images in this poem such  as roses on grave, wedding gown as a cover, a tomb with green grass, medals, badge, youth days, wardress with blood, clouds, winters, lips without a smile, arms without tenderness, eye without sight, the body without motion, shrapnel as a token etc.

Among them all, I liked the shrapnel image the most. It made it very clear what gift a war can give to human beings. The shrapnel does not only mean that it shattered the body of the soldier, but also shattered the life of the beloved. That is the deadly gift of the war.

c. Which figurative language is used in this poem ? Explain with example.

Figurative language is phrasing that the goes beyond the literal meaning of words to get a message. We find the use of irony, apostrophe, anaphora, and metaphor as the figurative language here in this poem.

            - (See above in Literary devices/figurative language.)

d. What does the speaker "offer" in this poem ? What does the person addressed as "you" give in return ?

The speaker offers several things such as  roses, her wedding gown, her youth and spring time to him.

The person addressed as "you"  (he) gives her the medals with shining stars, the smell of blood, lips without a smile, arms without tenderness, eyes without sight, motionless body and shrapnel.

e. An apostrophe is a literary device  in which a writer or speaker addresses an absent person or an abstract idea in such a way as if it were present and can understand. Discuss the poem in relation to apostrophe.

•   This poem "The Gifts in Wartime" is about the inhuman picture of war and its effects on humans where the speaker addresses her dead husband directly, that is apostrophe. This way has helped her to express her feelings and grief to him directly

•     She tries her best to make him realise about her deep lovable feelings for him. From the first stanza to the last, she keeps on making the absent person realise about her presents, sacrifices, Ionely feelings, helplessness, the gifts of war as medals, badge, army dress with painful feelings, death, etc. By addressing the absent "you", she has also been able to give him the message and promise to meet him in the next life.

•    The poem has shown the bitter reality of war on humans through the speaker's dialogues for her absent lovable person using the apostrophe.

Reference beyond the text 

a. One way to get relief from grief is to write or talk about it. In your opinion, how might the speaker in this poem has benefitted from saying what she did ? Explain. 

o   The speaker in this poem has succeed in conveying dreadful impacts of war over all the humanity. It illustrates the fact that war always invites death, destruction and dark future for all. In the poem, the speaker is found as a  victim of war along with her lovable person's death which  can take  her into its grip for months or years. 

o   In such a terrible situation writing can help one to come out of such situation. Writing in grief helps the grief release and thus making heart lighter. Writing boosts the immune system and increases mental health.

o   The speaker has benefitted most by writing a poem about her dead husband and releasing her grief in the form of art.  She feels better as she depicts about her loving husband and promises to meet him in their next life lightens her heart.  

b. Write an essay on the effects of war. 

War has many effects, but only a few good aspects as well. The purpose of war is to inflict the will of one nation, or person onto another nation or person using military force.

Understanding this purpose, there are some of the main bad effects of War are:

o   War is very expensive.

o   The loss of life and taxation can be catastrophic on the population.

o   Population quality of life is diminished.

o   Inflation usually occurs and adversely affects the value of the government's monetary system.

o   Creation of hatred feeling and pollution.

o   Radioactivity is increased to a high level which leads to springing of new diseases.

o   Emotional and psychological problems like insomnia.

o   Instability of decisions by the government.

o   Damage of the infrastructures.

o   Labour force is reduced and people become refugees.

o   Destruction of families and communities.

o   Disruption of the developments of the social and economic sides of the countries.

The other horrible sides of it are : spread of different diseases, lack of food, malnutrition, disability, economic and social decline etc. 

To wrap up, we can state that war invites only and only  death and destruction.

 (All Images Credits: Google Images)

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