The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner Analysis

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

.: :.

In response to the "abortion" analysis...this is not about abortion. It is a clever connection but he didn't write this as a form of social protest. He was a Fighter pilot in WW2 and this was his reaction to what he witnessed. He was disgusted with the dehumanizing effects of war. It also protests violence and blames the war on the state. He is not advocating that we all be pro-choice, though you may like to believe that.

| Posted on 2009-10-10 | by a guest

.: :.

Well, the abortion motif certainly exists in this poem, there is no doubt about it. However, this is not meant to make any comment on abortions themselves, they are not the topic. It is only used to draw an image of a human being that basically hasn't lived at all, is pretty much born dead (or not born at all). This man is ejected from the protection of the mother's womb, just to enter a life that is not a life at all, but a violent nightmare which inevitably leads to a violent death. The soldier is then ejected from this artificial womb (the belly of the machine, the State, the substitute mother) by means of a steam hose. This abortion imagery has been noted before by many scholars. Just don't take it for something it is not. Jarrell is NOT making any social commentary on abortions here!
Otherwise, if anyone has troubles interpreting this poem (which is really an easy one), there are several good books on Jarrell's literary life, his military years, and this poem specifically. But it makes a lot of sense not to read this as a stand alone poem, but to read it after having studied and understood all of "Little Friend, Little Friend", the volume from which this poem comes.

| Posted on 2009-08-30 | by a guest

.: :.

Abortion, dudes you're smoking the good stuff, and here I thought religious zealots didn't smoke the wacky stuff. This is about a young boy taken from his home to serve, if he was in a ball turret he was small of stature. With a ceiling of 35,000 feet the B-17 crew dressed in leather and wool; you ever wear these you sweat, and at 10,000 feet or higher that sweat will freeze. Six miles from earth...ceiling of 35,000, six miles, that high most records show these brave men slept with oxygen. Waking to flak and fighters meant the plane was back down to to bombing altitude of 10,000 feet and the fight was on. If there was even a turret after the mission, and it contained a dead solider, a hose would be the beast way to clean up. Abortion, how off base can you get? Well you see what you want to see, and hear what you want to hear.

| Posted on 2009-08-27 | by a guest

.: :.

Personally I think that Randall Jarrell intentionally meant for this connection with abortion. Because not every person has been to war so those who haven’t can truly grasp how terrible it is. I think he was comparing horror that war is with something that is more relatable as abortion. Knowing that your going to die having no power to stop it.

| Posted on 2009-05-14 | by a guest

.: :.

Personally I think that Randall Jarrell intentionally meant for this connection with abortion. Because not every person has been to war so those who haven’t can truly grasp how terrible it is. I think he was comparing horror that war is with something that is more relatable as abortion. Knowing that your going to die having no power to stop it.

| Posted on 2009-05-14 | by a guest

.: :.

Personally I think that Randall Jarrell intentionally meant for this connection with abortion. Because not every person has been to war so those who haven’t can truly grasp how terrible it is. I think he was comparing horror that war is with something that is more relatable as abortion. Knowing that your going to die having no power to stop it.

| Posted on 2009-05-14 | by a guest

.: :.

I believe the analysis refering to the abortion sounds correct. It's shows a sense of helplessness, and confusion. Showing almost the feeling of a young mind, in comparison to a war which was also alike in the fearful sense.

| Posted on 2009-03-29 | by a guest

.: :.

This poem is an extended metaphor. The author is comparing the act of abortion to the death of a ball turret gunner. The speaker is the ball turret gunner, who represents an aborted fetus. The line “From my mother's sleep I fell into the State” means that the fetus became living while in its mother's womb. The next line states, “And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.” A gunner would hunch into a ball turret as a fetus is hunched in the womb. The gunner is “six miles from earth” when he is “loosed from [his] dream of life.” This could mean that the infant is six months away from being born when its life is being taken away. In line four, the word “flak” refers to antiaircraft fire and “nightmare fighters” refers to the enemy gunners. The flak symbolizes the act of abortion while the nightmare fighters symbolize the doctors who are performing the operation. The last line states, “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” If a gunner died, his body would have to be pulled out of the ball turret and the blood would have to be washed out. When an abortion is performed, a hose is used.
The topic of this poem is abortion. The setting of this poem is a ball turret that represents a mother's womb. The entire poem has a very grim tone. A couple of the words that are used to suggest this tone are “hunched” and nightmare”. The author does not use much imagery. This is a free verse poem. There is no definite rhythm or rhyme.
The author, Randall Jarrell, is obviously against abortion. He wants to convince his readers to be pro-life. His poem is very graphic and emotionally disturbing. He uses this to affect his readers on a deep level. Even someone form a pro-choice standpoint can not ignore the horridness of abortion that is represented through this poem. Nobody can quite disagree with the author. What is true is true. There is no changing that, but one can disagree on how abortion is viewed. It can be viewed as a the helpless murder of an innocent infant or it can be viewed as a woman's control over her own body. Either way, the poem is well written and effective.

| Posted on 2009-02-24 | by a guest

.: :.

A ball turret was a plexiglass sphere set into the belly of a B-17 or B-24 bomber, and held two .50 caliber machine-guns and one short, small man. This gunner tracked with his machine-guns, when a fighter attacked his bomber from below, he revolved the turret; hunched upside-down in his little sphere, he looked like a fetus in the womb. The American planes could fly a lot higher than German planes, because of our advanced technology- hence the cold. The fighters which attacked him were armed with canon firing explosive shells. The hose was probably a steam hose.

| Posted on 2009-02-05 | by a guest

.: :.

You guys are dumb! This is poem is clearly about satans lust for the soilder who opperated the ball turrets butthole.
;P Indubitably

| Posted on 2009-01-06 | by a guest

.: :.

Poster on 10-10-2008, your wrap up is as dubious as your facts. The B-29 had remotely controlled turrets, the B-24 and B-17 had the ball turrets. How dare you equate the deaths of the gunner in ball turrets (or top, forward, rear facing ones) as the victims of jingoism. Read a history book. Nazi Germany and Japan started the war. Guys like the one who died in the turret helped end it. Do not equate their deaths with your loser perception of this great country.

| Posted on 2008-12-17 | by a guest

.: :.

This poem is most definatly about abortion. It was originally used as an anti-war peom, but was later after Jarrel commited suicide was confirmed its meaning.
From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
*While in the womb I beceme living*
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
*babys are hunched in the womb to exit and we are all born with a furry coat called a lanugo covering our body. When they would open up the mother to start the procedure they would let air in, hence the frozen fur.*
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
*Six MONTHS from BIRTH- babies are aborted in the first trimester, its dream of life is literal*
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
*the nightmare fighters are the people doing the procedure that remove the fetus*
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
*Abortions are done with hoses*
I think it is, but thats my opinion

| Posted on 2008-11-24 | by a guest

.: :.

I would have to somewhat disagree with the comment posted on 10-10-2008. I do agree that this poem is not about abortion, but abortion was around during this time. Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants deals with abortion indirectly and was written 18 years before Death of The Ball Turret Gunner.
Again, while anyone can see the possible parallels to abortion, this poem is simply not about that. My interpretation is that in it's five lines, it deals with the separation of child and mother forceably by the State and the gruesome, senseless death the gunner dies. Our country was sending young soldiers to war and as technologies advanced, the casualties became exceedingly grotesque... this is spelled out quite clearly in the last line. Being washed out with a hose is not a noble, honorable way to treat a fallen soldier.

| Posted on 2008-11-09 | by a guest

.: :.

In this poem, I think it is for sure about a soldier, not an abortion. From my mother's sleep I fell into the State- State is capitalized, which means he fell into the Military/Draft-not state of mind. He was in fact a gunner in the war. The wet belly symbolizes the turet, and ball turret gunners always died, hense the last phrase. The black flak is what I believe to be waking up to gunfire. this is my opinion..

| Posted on 2008-11-09 | by a guest

.: :.

I wouild like to remind anyone who wishes to post another analysis that this poem aws written well before abortion was an issue. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that the author's intent was to protest the issue. Anyone trying to prove the contrary is pathetically erroneous, and is merely trying to push their own half-baked political agenda (as all minorities do from time to time). Indubitably there are parallels, but this poem remains about the grim horrors of war. Ball-turret gunners were part of the crew that manned the B-29 Suprefortresses during WWII. Their job was to fend off attacking fighter planes so that the bombers could drop their payloads (usually a load of incendiary bombs)and possibly strafe ground forces in entrenchments. Unfortunately, it was during these latter missions that the most casualties occurred for the ball-turret-gunners, as they in turn would get strafed from below. What they had for protection was little more than a canopy of glass beneath their feet. Consequently, they were subject to horrific bombardments of bullets and shrapnel so profuse as to tear their bodies to a mangledn bloody pulp (hence the "black flack and the nightmare fighters") and that furthermore, the state, in grim practicality, could do nothing more than to rinse the gory remains out "with a hose." Undoubtedly this is a likely wartime scenario. This poem serves as a warning against that monster of nationalistic right-wing thinking we like to call "patriotism". For, in modern society, it is very much up to the citizenry whether or not such atrocities are permitted by the State.

| Posted on 2008-10-10 | by a guest

.: :.

I disagree strongly with the first poster. Why would Jarrel use this war imagery to discuss abortion? What is the "Bell of the State"? Does the State order abortions? What is the wet fur? I think there is definitely an abortion parallel, but I would say that abortion imagery is used to express how this soldier's life is lost before he has a chance to fully live it. It's about the death of the ball turret gunner. Poets don't play cheap tricks like saying "I'm saying it's about this, BUT IT'S ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY!"

| Posted on 2008-09-03 | by a guest

.: :.

There are two ways of interpreting the poem “THE DEATH OF THE BALL TURRET GUNNER”; at least there are the ones we studied. But what are these extended metaphors about? Let’s see.

There is one that is supposed to be about a soldier that is drafted at a very early age, and he died in the turret ball. And the poem tells us how he felt during all the time.
But there is another interpretation that is so much better, at least for me.
This extended metaphor talks about an abortion. In the first lines of the poem we can read: “From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, and I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.” that clearly tell us that he was aborted. Later we can read a line that says: “… loosed from the dream of life,” where we can read that he never could really live, that he lost the dream of life. Finally, in the last line of the poem “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” That tells what the doctors do to the mommies when they just had an abortion; they have to clean up everything inside their belly, to avoid and infection.
There’s no doubt the poem could be taken in both ways, but for me the more interesting is the one of the abortion, because we can read how Randall James, using all these terms of airplanes and war, explained how a baby feel after an abortion. It gives us a message.

| Posted on 2008-07-27 | by a guest

.: Analysis :.

In the breakdown of "The Death..." the poem reveals itself with symbolism and takes flight into a different dimension. "From my mother's sleep I fell into the State.." From this you realize that the gunner is in the fetal position and as he fell into the "State," a lot could be interred, he could be actually in some state literally, yet a more deeper meaning could symbolize the state of mind from maybe the sleep og battle fatigue and dreaming of beig in another place like home or a general place of security. "I hunched in it's belly till my wet fur froze.." This line is a deep line possible explaining the discomfort in the turret. He feels different now, instead of the mother's belly, the turret is referred to as "it," not so comforting and he is now out of the comfort he had just went into. If the thought of "my wet fur froze" seems very uncomforting this should reveal the distress of the turret, but some others I've known think the "wet fur" could refer to an actual fur coat that someone could of worn to keep warm. "Six miles from earth, loosed from it's dream of life.." The six miles could be a way of saying he is literally up in the air or maybe just far from reality. Now, being loosened from it's dream of life, there is a reference to "it" again but I think it would be referring to earth. The "dream of life" could be home anf he knows he is gone or "loosed" from life, he's dying or just knows he will die because he is in war and gone from reality. "I woke to a black flac and the nightmare fighters." Now this is the line that seems to unliteral to be in the poem. If in the line before he is dying, does he stop dying? I think that the third line reveals how he probably is dying, but in the 4th line says that he finally, for sure, knows that he will die and at this point he IS dying. When he wakes to the "black flac" for me is reality and the "nightmare fighters" would be who is fighting with him fighting off death and trying to win the battle. "When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose." This sentence shows the cruel reality of war and the brutality of it. The battle quickly refers to what happens after his death and shows how insignficant one death could be. "The Death.." was a poem of battle and the cruel ways of how they were about the war, and many say that dying for the country feels like victory and gives you pride, but the end of poem, gives off a unsatifactory mood.

| Posted on 2007-01-19 | by a guest