Carol Ann Duffy Shooting Stars Analysis

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English Literature

Fern Lawton, Neptune 12

Miss Davies

Shooting Star – Carol Ann Duffy

The poem 'Shooting Stars' by Carol Ann Duffy tells a shocking story of a female prisoner held by Nazis in a concentration camp around the time of the Holocaust. The poem is set in 1940, Hitler and his Nazi party had taken control of most of Europe and had vowed to exterminate the entire Jewish race. Duffy's haunting use of imagery and word choice make this poem so memorable and its very strong opening prepares the reader for the rest of the poem.  

            The title choice, 'Shooting Stars' is a very effective and ambiguous. The first meaning is that the word ‘Stars’ represents the Jewish symbol in which is The Star of David. Jewish people were forced to wear them on their clothes to mark them out as targets of abuse and torment for Nazis. Another possible meaning of the title is metaphorically symbolising a literal shooting star and comparing it to the life of the Jewish prisoners. The Jews' life is similar to the shooting star in the way that their life and potential was bright and brilliant but was cut short. The title stays with the reader and is reinforced by its clever use of alliteration and also reinforces the fact that any death, no matter how small, is still heroic and brave.
         The poem begins with "After I no longer speak they break our fingers to salvage my wedding ring". Duffy opens the poem by using shock tactics which catch the reader’s attention and also prepares us for the rest of the poem. This spoken by a dead Jewish woman is a shocking description telling how the Germans would take anything valuable off the Jewish women and how they value jewellery more than human life. The word "Salvage" is usually used to mean saving useful parts of something which is being disposed of, the associations of this word clearly indicates the lack of respect and care the Germans had for the dead Jewish bodies. The persona comes across as a heroine, for the reader because she attempts to give the reader a list of the names in which we have believed to of passed away “Rebecca Rachel Ruth Aaron Emmanuel David” All these names used are stereotypical Jewish family names. In addition Duffy has also not used any punctuation whilst listing them possibly to highlight the fact the list goes on and on due to the mass killing of the Jewish race and the ignorance and lack of care from the Germans. “Mourn for the daughters, upright as statues, brave.” Not only men were dying, but women and children too. It forces the readers to question themselves, and put themselves in the personas place and question whether we would be as brave.” ‘upright as a statue’? This tells us that these people were strong before they died they were not quavering and falling about they kept their dignity. In addition this highlights how the persona was continuing to act as a heroic figure within the poem. The bravery of the persona continues throughout the poem. “You would not look at me. You waited for the bullet.” The single word sentence emphasises the sudden and disturbing death which the persona has to witness.  The dark tone and brutal graphic imagery used by Duffy brings the reader into the situation which creates a strong feeling of hatred toward the German soldiers in which are doing this to innocent Jewish women.  The persona will not let the reader forget “I say Remember. Remember these appalling days which make the world for ever bad” Repetition of the word ‘Remember’ impacts and addresses the reader personally. In addition the repetition of 'Remember' echoes in our head like a guilty conscience, the last dying word of a fellow human being at the hands of incompetent young men. The way in which Duffy says “which will for ever make the world bad” Indicates that no matter what, this brutal behaviour and these actions have already occurred. Furthermore nothing anyone does will erase what has happened to the innocent Jews, which impacts on how the world will almost be forever tainted as sometimes being a bad place.

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           After the brutality that has already occurred Duffy continues to bring in more imagery whilst describing the persona getting raped. Although Duffy narrows into the rape at first with a subtle manor by saying “One saw I was alive. Loosened his belt.” The enjambment between ‘loosened’ and ‘belt’ draws the attention to the horrific fact that this woman is actually about to be raped. Duffy goes about it in a very subtle way, but the graphic description we get next is enough to make anyone feel the sheer impact of what has just occurred. The horror ...

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