Similarly in The Last Night Sebastian Faulkes initiates the misfortune by highlighting the innocence of two boys’ misfortune of being Jewish, as the text suggests that they would die in the concentration camp; “they might write a final message”, the adjective ‘final’ picks up on how death was likely to meet these people, all of which were innocent of crime, but were being killed for their beliefs. This is a poignant message to the reader, as Western culture is proud of its freedoms of belief, and helps build sympathy at the character’s misfortune in being a German Jew. Small details are also shown, such as “the soft bloom of his cheek laid, uncaring, in the dung.” To again show the misfortune of the characters. The adjective “uncaring” highlights the misfortune of the two boys as it emphasises their orphan status and create a strong emotive message to the reader, as it shows the inhumanity of killing such innocence.
In addition the setting of the text, “laid.. in the dung” emphasises the misfortune of the character, to be lying in animal excrement through no fault of their own, which, in conjunction with the atmosphere of the text, “with sobbing passion” creates a strong effect of sympathy to the characters. The verb “passion” with the pre-modifiers “sobbing” is an example of how through a third person narrative Faulkes shows the emotions of the characters to great effect, for it shows insight into how the characers must be feeling from an outside perspective and is all the more powerful for it.
In contrast Refugee Blues is written from a 1st person viewpoint; however the atmosphere of the poem is not detracted from, it rather works well, as if the character in the poem is speaking to the reader; by the repetition of “my dear”, in each line, and in doing so creates the effect that we are seeing an intimate view of the character’s thoughts. This makes the poem more personal to the reader and so when sympathy is developed through the portrayal of misfortune, it is all the more poignant.
In both pieces, portrayal of misfortune is both subtle yet convincing. In Refugee Blues the repetition of the last line, “Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place for us” adds emphasis to the conclusion of each stanza, and for each case explaining the misfortune that became the character. It also deliberately jars the flow of the piece and doing so draws attention to those words, in order to emphasise the misfortune of the character.
In contrast The Last Night uses no repetition and is remarkable for the flow which it achieves, despite being a prose piece and this is achieved through a remarkable mix of action and description to keep the pace of the piece alive: often in the same sentence.
Refugee Blues develops the portrayal of misfortune through the plot of the poem as each stanza the writer’s situation gets progressively worse.
