Just for clarification it is M16A2 not M-16A2 but that is a different argument for later.
“M-16A2 Assault Rifle”
Martin’s poem, M-16A2
Assault Rifle, focused on every small detail of the rifle that he possibly
could. Martin focuses on how he cleans the rifle and how he holds the rifle. He
almost sounds like how a US Marine would if you asked them to talk about their
rifle. But then again a Marine would just start reciting the “Rifleman’s Creed”.
Martin talks about the rifle like as if it is a member of his family, which is
understandable since he doesn’t have any family in Iraq as he is there. The
poem more specifically focuses on the mundane of war life, which is something
only O’Brien has talked about in his stories. At the end of the poem Martin
takes a different turn where he says he rather hang up his rifle than to get
the slightest bit of dirt on it. Which Martin makes an association to the
shooting that he calls making the night blush. That is a wonderful association
because bullets being fired at night does look like red burst in the darkness.
“The Stick Soldiers”
Martin did a fabulous job of really capturing the difference
of opinions that Americans and Iraqis had for this war. When he was reading the
American children’s letters he described the pictures that they drew along with
some kids sending what they wanted for Christmas and to send best wishes to
those soldiers. Even though the children of Iraq pictures on the concrete walls
of what they wanted to soldiers to do or not really threats. The children of
Iraq only wanted the American soldiers dead or just gone. Which is
understandable because who really wants a bunch of soldiers to be around
busting in their home door? Hugh Martin chooses the small details to bring out
which is a good thing because the small details are what really show
description in the stories.
No comments:
Post a Comment