I read M-16A2 Assault Rifle and The Stick Soldiers. Martin
talks about cleaning his rifle and the way he describes it is so precise. He
uses a lot of imagery in his writing such as sandbags, sweat in sunlight, green
fields, etc. This helps us get a sense of what he sees during this time. He
talks about how after he sits for hours and cleans his gun how he just wants to
take it home to display because it seems wrong to shoot it again. It’s like
after he cleans the gun it’s pure, he doesn’t want to corrupt it with shooting
it again or doing something that “makes the night blush.” In The Stick Soldiers
it’s interesting to see the description of the children from America’s drawings
compared to the children of Iraqi’s graffiti of killing the Americans. It
allows us to see both sides of the war in a way we usually aren’t able to see
because we are only shown the brutality of the enemy and not how we are
destroying them like they’re destroying us. This is different from other’s
writings because we are not usually shown anything about who is being fought.
Or anything about people outside of the war especially children and what they
send to the soldiers. The children are so innocent on both sides not really
understanding what is going on because they draw stick figures with guns
waving.
Martin does give vivid imagery that the reader can envision every detail. I also like your perspective of the poem, “The Stick Soldiers”. It does depict the two sides of war and Martin does an excellent way of revealing that by writing about the children’s pictures and showing war in children’s perspective. Children do not really understand or grasp the brutality of war but they can understand who an enemy is, especially if they are told over and over again the opposing side is the enemy. Nonetheless, you brought up great points about the innocence of children and how it can sometimes be warped during time of war and violence.
ReplyDelete"The Stick Soldiers" have been the most interesting poem about war I have read so far. This poem describes the war portraying the ultimate truth but yet describing it in a very innocent manner. For example the drawings of the children wishing the American soldiers good luck. But their drawing written with white chalk is noting but violence and how it is affecting them immensely. Martin also uses imagery to illustrate every detail of the actual war picture. Your point were excellent about how we only see the brutal side of the war and do not really pay attention to the other side.
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