Falling Into the State and Awaking to Die: Randall Jarrell's "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner"

3/4/2014

Click on photo to read poem

After reading and annotating Jarrell's poem, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner," please consider the following question:

What does the imagery of the last line suggest about the speaker's attitude toward death?

Please post your response here, using your assigned Student Number (contact me if you forget it). Your response should:
1. use the poems' title and author's name
2. answer the prompt
3. use a properly cited quote from the poem to support your ideas (hint: better quotes aren't just the last line)
4. be between 100-150 words (hint: type response on Word Doc and the Copy/Paste into submission box)

This blog response is due by 11:59 pm tonight.

Student- #13

3/4/2014 04:46:19 am

The tittle of this poem is The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner and it been written by Randall Jarrell.The image trying to show the speaker’s attitude toward is the speaker is very upset with the death. The picture trying to show the death can happen anytime and it can happen unexpected. The speaker knew his duty is to fight for his country and his people. But he never expects to open his eyes on the next day and facing the pain and death. “I woke up to the black flak and the nightmare fighter”, this poem showing that right after he woke up, he have to face the war right away, and it almost like he still sleeping and fight the nightmare, the nightmare represent the battle.

Student 11

3/4/2014 08:51:58 am

In Randall Jarrell’s poem, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, his attitude towards death is very careless. Although often time’s death is viewed as a moment of morning, grieving and sadness, Gunner describes death as the expected or “something that just happens”. He shows no sympathy and no remorse. “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose” (Gunner). After he died it is obvious that he was immediately replaced showing the irrelevance of his presence. They just washed out his remains and called it a day. “I woke to the flak and the nightmare fighters” (Gunner). This line too adds to the author’s tone of gloom, isolation and carelessness. This sentence is ironic because the author describes it as waking up into a nightmare, when normally people wake up from nightmares. In conclusion, the last line/sentence is very important in decoding the authors tone towards death.

Student 11

3/4/2014 09:19:15 am

(Jarrell) *

Student 19

3/4/2014 09:25:57 am

In Randall Jarrell’s poem, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, shows the carelessness for the men who put there life down for. I say this because throughout the poem you are able to tell he is mistreated. “And I hunched in its belly my wet fur froze” (Jarrell line 2). This quote shows how imagery because you are able to visualize him curled into fetal position while he was inside of the turret. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose” (Jarrell line 5). This is showing how the value of his life is not important; it also shows how there was no remorse.

Student 21

3/4/2014 12:09:16 pm

In Randall Jarrell’s poem, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” the tone of the last line is that of resignation. It suggests that the narrator expected to die and is merely stating that fact. In fact, it appears as though the idea of death bores him. The 3 lines that precede the last are filled with action words and imagery. For example, “I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters” (Jarrell), is something a frightened and excited person might say. You would expect someone to also be frightened when dying, or in the narrator’s case, after they've died. Instead, the expectation of death has left the narrator a jaded man, so much so that he does not care in the slightest that proper respect isn’t shown to his remains.

Student-26

3/4/2014 12:12:10 pm

In Randall Jarrell's poem, "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" , his perspective on death is displayed to be rather careless. Death is something that is always constant, but shouldn't be looked at as a constant. Death is viewed as " something normal' sort of in comparison to breathing in a regular day. “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose” (Gunner). After his death it was noticeable that his existence was irrelevant, showed how they "washed him out" with a hose. " Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life " (Gunner). in this line, it reflects on being driven away from the essence of life, and importance. It clearly shows his interpretation of death by stating "loosed from its dream of life" meaning the idea of life isn't special, but a normal thing meant to be given, and lost.

Student 5

3/4/2014 01:46:48 pm

In Randall Jarrell’s poem, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, his attitude towards this certain death with the ball turret was shown little sympathy and more careless. This death was given a tone of careless since he’d woken up from his sleep to only find himself at a heat of battle with the fighters. The person’s experience resembles a dream leading to a nightmare and also correlates with the image of being in a womb, which soon came out of and experience horrific events without warning. This imagery relates to a quote, from the poem, of the experience inside the ball turret, “I woke to the black flak and the nightmare fighters” (Jarrell line 4). The speaker’s attitude towards death states was disappointment of how people showed no sympathy or remorse and that his efforts and part in the war meant nothing to them at all.

Student 10

3/4/2014 03:51:04 pm

In Randall Jarrell's poem, "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner", talks about a man who dies in a ball turret. The last line shows his grief about how he ends up dead. His body was treated with disrespect, and however tells us that he would be replaced. In connection, the line "I woke to the black flak and the nightmare fighters," shows he was in a fight and was in the ball turret. Unfortunately he was attacked and fired by fighters, and that led to his death.

Student 8

3/4/2014 04:16:49 pm

In Jarrell short story “The Death of The Ball Turret Gunner”, the speaker views death as a situation that will eventually happen to everybody so he doesn’t see it as anything that requires attention. Throughout the whole sentence he talked about how he moved from an undisturbed home “mothers sleep” into the state which can be the army service. He also talked about how it felt been in the turret. In the last sentence we can see how he describes his death “when I died, they washed me out of the turret with a hose”, this phrases helps us the readers to imagine how his death was. It seems like his death was so severe that even if they shipped his remains home, you couldn’t necessarily hold him and weep over him. Overall, the last sentence sets the entire tone of the passage. It gives the readers a grim of how his death was.

Student 27

3/4/2014 09:53:53 pm

In Randall Jerrall’s poem, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, expresses many feelings throughout it. Towards the end of the poem you start to feel as if you can imagine the author had no thought or inspiration for the last sentence. The poem had started off as if somebody was just waking up from a birth, then ending its life directly to death. The quote, “I woke up to black flak and the nightmare fighters”, (Jarrell line2). The way the person woke up expresses the feeling of birth then going directly to death as he met the black flak. The author has already died from this point and then he was washed out with a hose making the entire poem feel emotional and as if you can imagine how the life of this Ball Turret Gunner had to be, then the way it ended made you wonder if what they said was meant to not be meaning.

3/4/2014 09:57:17 pm

In Randall Jarrell’s poem, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, the narrator views death differently than how he perceives his experience in the ball turret. In the first four lines of the poem, the narrator uses great imagery to describe the conditions and experiences of a ball turret gunner. Even the sentence structures were elongated to provide more detail and imagery. The tone in the first four lines could be viewed as uncertain or scared. However, in the last line, “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose" (Jarrell, line 5), the tone in the narrator's words change. This sentence is very matter-of-factly, as it goes straight to the point unlike the other lines in the poem. Because of the sudden lack of detail, it seems as though there is also a sudden lack of importance in regards to the narrator's attitude towards death. Line 5 is stated so bluntly, causing the readers to be hit by a shockingly different attitude and tone. Also, the entire passage is written in past tense. This causes the first four lines also written in past tense to seem like events in a story. When the narrator uses past tense in the last line, the readers can get an eerie feeling. Reading about someone talking about their death is unheard of in one sense, but reading about someone who is careless about their death is another.

3/5/2014 12:03:51 am

In Randall Jarrell’s poem, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, he had really good complex, detailed sentences throughout his poem until the last line. I think because that he made his last sentence so simple that he thinks death is fast, and easy. The way he said “washed out with a hose”(Gunner) it almost seems that no one cares if they die, that it’s just another part of war or as if it’s no big deal. Every other part of the poem has a lot of details. "Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life " (Gunner). The complexity from this sentence is so much different from the last one.

student15

3/5/2014 12:07:59 am

The “The death of the ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell is a poem that its title speaks for itself. However the writer goes more in-depth with the last line and sort of gives a different approach to this sentence. The choices of words that the writer choose to use can make a reader knows that the speaker have an attitude towards death. The attitude that the speaker has towards death, I would say is acceptance. The speaker has accepted death and respect anyway they treat him after his death as long as it’s somewhat honorable to him. “I fell into the states” (Randall Jarrell 1). The speaker has fallen in the states as a proud soldier and accepts the way they treat his body after all his work is done for his country. He went up for his country and fell right back into it.

Student 03

3/5/2014 12:55:09 am

In the poem “the Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell all the lines are unique in the way they are written. All have deeper meaning and all very detailed. All of them accept the last one. While other sentences were metaphoric like “Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life” the last one was simple, plain and even cold. It’s because that last sentence says so much about what the speaker thinks about death. That is that death is fast and dull. That’s why the speaker said “washed me out of the turret with a hose” when he died. His death was like the countless others before him in the war. The speaker believed his death had no meaning because he can be easily replaced, replaced by a person like him who “fell into the state”.

Student 03

3/5/2014 12:57:23 am

(The)*

Brandon Olmeda

3/5/2014 01:33:34 am

In Randall Jarrell’s poem, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, his feeling towards the death of these solider kind of seem careless. He make is seem like it’s a normal thing that people die all the time and there just replaced as this is just a casual thing that happens and know cares they just move on with their lives. When the author says “I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose”(Gunner) which makes him think that he was just an object that they replaced show no remorse. When he describe being in the torrent he compares it to being in your mother wound before you come and being sprayed out by the hoes shoes like when you’re out the wound its cold were the author shows no sympathy or remorse when you are a gunner your just an object of war that can be easily replaces.

Student 28

3/5/2014 02:11:10 am

In Randell Jarell's poem, "The Death of the Ball Turrent Gunner" it's all about the life of a soldier who is in the ball turrent. This poem shows how life was like when you were in these situations. The last line of the poem is different from the rest of the poem. It doesn't have the same intensity like the other lines of the poems have. For example, "Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life." This quote has so much intensity to it. The last line of the poem where he says, "When I died they washed me out of the turrent with a house."(Randell Jarrell 5) this quote just shows that they knew they were going to parish because there was no intensity of the way he said it. When they took the job to do it they knew they weren't coming home. The speaker has accepted his death without any problems. He fell into the state.

Student 22

3/5/2014 02:13:13 am

In Randall Jerrel’s poem, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, he expresses his feelings towards death like he really does not care at all. He obviously thinks that death is a normal thing in life. The author says “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” (Jarrel) this is trying to make us see that he would be replaced just like other people would be. He isn’t afraid to die, he is careless, but he is scared of the place he would be like when he went to war. He is traumatized of what happened, and maybe he thought that dying would be one of the solutions of this problem.

3/5/2014 02:21:57 am

What does the imagery of the last line suggest about the speaker's attitude toward death?
The imagery of the last line suggests that the speaker feels like he will be forgotten when he passes. He feels like another soldier, as if he is expandable. He says “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” He didn’t elaborate on his case or talk about how they cried or had a ceremony or funeral for him. He ends it suddenly and dramatically with an image that cannot escape your mind. You picture somebody washing out the “ball turret” with a hose just like someone rinsing their plate after a meal, just another stain. “I woke to the black flak and the nightmare fighters” this implies to me that working this job was a nightmare to him and that perhaps it was never his real goal/ intention. He also says “I fell into the State” which I assume meant he felt he was forced to perform his duty as a citizen.

student14

3/5/2014 02:27:11 am

“The death of the Ball Turret Gunner” is a poem by Randall Jarrell in which he talks about the war in his point of view. The first two sentences are in complete sentences and are very detailed and descriptive. In the first sentence the picture of a young man who is sent right from home to the military is built in a readers mind. The second line uses juxtaposition when he talks about dream of life and the nightmare fighters. The last sentence however is very short and uses plain understandable language. Though this is a plain sentence, we see how the speaker feels towards death. The last sentence which is: “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” shows that the speaker understands that life has to end but how he is treated when he dies is what bothers him. The way he is washed out of the turret shows how insignificant and useless he was and how heartless the others are.

Student 6

3/5/2014 02:43:36 am

In Randall Jarrell’s poem, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” the attitude of the last line sounds like acceptance. It suggests that the narrator accepted death and he was ready to die. It seemed like life was something he let go of a long time ago. The 3 lines that are before the last are filled with verbs and imagery. For example, “I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters” (Jarrell). This seems like he is eager, but at the same time he is kind of scared if not startled maybe. You would expect someone to be scared when dying. Instead, the expectation of death has left the narrator a twisted man. Not quite insane, but to the point where death is nothing to him.

Student 07

3/5/2014 05:29:41 am

In Rancall Jarrell's poem "The Death of the Ball Turrent Gunner" the tone of the last line "When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose", is carelessness. The ending is beey abrupt and suggest a lack of care towards those who just passed. It is quite dehumanizing and shows that the soldiers were not portrayed as valuable.

Student 16

3/6/2014 11:39:43 am

In the short poem “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell, he describes a summary of a ball turret gunner’s life in a few lines. Jarrell’s last line in his poem provides pretty distinct imagery about the speaker’s attitude toward death. “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose” (line 5). Jarrell could have just stated that the “they” disposed the body out of the turret, but he used “washed” instead. The dead body was washed out therefore it’s a washout and has no use any more due to its failure. I believe that the last line has a pessimistic outlook on death and therefore is not moved by death itself. Basically he has a nonchalant feeling about death.

Tien

3/8/2014 11:01:36 am

The poem "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" by Randall Jarrell, the speaker's attitude towards death show that he is accepting death. He knows that he will die because he exclaimed that "when I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose" (line 5, Jarrell). Due to the possibility of either getting shot of crashing, his body would be shot in the sky. His comrades would get his body got of the aircraft one way or another. He believe that he would die and can't put in any regret about it.

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