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Kamikaze Ideological power (Japanese culture of honour and the impact of shame) and the impact that society has on family members. The pilot suffers from inner conflict as he wishes to live but also honour his country, his inner conflict is not resolved due to his family ostracizing him and so “he wondered which had been the better way to die”. We never hear from the pilot, the effect of this is to silence his voice from the reader and show his isolation – as we hear of him but not from him, he does not have a voice, he has been silenced. The reader could interpret his actions as powerful as he does not conform to the cultural pressure to be a suicide bomber despite his “shaved head and powerful incantations”. The poem shows the power of the family which is stronger for him than state power. Nature’s beauty and preciousness as shown through the “silver” fish helps the pilot to turn around. Nature has a positive role in this poem.
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The Prelude is a poem which explores the power of experiences and our inability to forget them as they are “huge”. Similarly Poppies also explores the experiences of the speaker and her inability to move on from the memories of her son who she has lost at war, however it differs in that Poppies is from the perspective of something outwith the main experience(that of war) thus highlighting the many different people that are affected by an experience that they are not even present at, whereas The Prelude is focused on one person’s experience and their internal conflicts and journey.
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Tissue is a poem which explores the ultimate powerlessness of humans as we are reminded repeatedly of the process of “thinning”. Similarly Bayonet Charge also explores the eventual powerlessness of humans as the soldier begins “running” but them is reduced to “stumbling”, however it differs in that Bayonet Charge highlights human beings’ negative impact on the world whereas Tissue reminds us of the many positive things we have built from “maps” to the “Koran”.
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My Last Duchess is a poem which explores the conflict in the relationship between the powerful duke and the powerless duchess. Similarly Ozymandius also explores a power imbalance, this time between the dictator and his “lifeless things”, however it differs in that Ozymandius is not the most powerful in the poem   (as the Duke is), as Ozymandius’ power is overtaken by Nature whose “lone and level sands drift on”. London is a poem which explores the negative effects of powerful institutions of the church and monarchy on “every infant” and “every man”. Similarly Charge of the Light Brigade also explores the power of the institution of the army – specifically the leadership, whose commands are for the soldiers “not to question why”, however it differs in that The Charge of the Light Brigade explicitly highlights the loss of life that occurs due to bad leadership from powerful institutions, whereas London merely hints at this when it talks of the “blood runs down the palace walls”.
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Bysshe Shelley presents nature’s power as gentle but ultimately a power that defeats human power, whereas in Owens in Exposure presents nature’s power also as defeating humans but it is an aggressive, violent, murderous power. In Ozymandius we are told that the “lone and level sands drift on”, this alliterative l sound is soft and gentle, a contrast to the alliterative plosive b sound of the “boundless and bare” description of Ozymandius (based on the human Pharaoh Ramsees II). The contrasting alliterations highlight the gentleness of nature, and the violent and aggressive nature of the human ruler. However what is important is that the poem (a single stanza) ends with the reference to nature. This ending is significant because it symbolises nature’s finality -   it is nature that remains the constant, not human power which “shatters”. Therefore nature’s power is presented as having permanency and defeats human power as it outlives it. Nature’s power also defeats human power in
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Essay question - Do you think Piggy is an important character from Lord of the Flies?   Piggy is an important character because he is one of the few characters whose mostly fatal fates portray the disintegration of society. This is shown through the constant link between Piggy and the conch throughout the book – indeed the conch is ‘born’ with Piggy as it is he who finds it and immediately, unlike Ralph, sees it value straight away. It is poignant that not only does Piggy give birth to the conch, but that the conch dies with him also. The conch and its inextricable link to Piggy is vital in helping us to understand that what it symbolises -   order, the rule of law and mutual respect and integration of all – therefore when Piggy dies so too do all of these values and so society disintegrates. This is highlighted as the conch “exploded into a thousand white fragments”. The verb choice explode highlights the total destruction of the conch and its values and it also is associated
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More notes and musings on A Christmas Carol A Christmas Carol First sentence in the text is about death – introduces a negative atmosphere and the theme of death. A negative beginning. In the first page there are many words in the lexical field of death. There are multiple references to death. Repetition of Marley was dead. Dead as a doornail – simile. Repetition of dead occurs often in the first page, even including the superlative "deadest". This highlights the presence of death and further the morbid atmosphere. Dickens is highlighting the current awful situation Scrooge is in, also is he suggesting that the Victorian era is morbid and depressing. The word choice of "unhallowed" suggests sinful but also links to the theme of religion. Repetition of sole, sole = only. Introduces the theme of loneliness. In the first page alone the word dead is included 6 times. Furthermore the word "sole" is repeated five times furtheri
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