In what ways does Duffy's poem connect with the perspective adopted in Szymborska's "Hunger Camp at Jaslo"?
Duffy's poem, "Shooting Stars", and Szymborska's "Hunger Camp at Jaslo" both focus on human suffering. Duffy's poem tells the story of the female narrator who was brutally tortured by the soldiers, while Szymborska's poem focuses on the pain and hunger felt by those captive in concentration camps during WWII. "After I no longer speak they break our fingers to salvage my wedding ring." In this quote, people are being objectifying as resources that need to be salvaged. In "Hunger Camp at Jaslo", Szymborska has painted history as heartless by saying "history counts its skeletons as round numbers". This furthermore demonstrates the disrespect of the intrinsic value of human life by history failing to recognize its victims. Similarly, in Duffy's poem, names of victims are just listed; "Rebecca Rachel Ruth Aaron Emmanuel David", emphasizing that the victims' identity do not matter to history. Listing the names without using any punctuation implies that the list of names of people that were suffering is endless. The idea of human suffering in Duffy's poem is reinforced through the quote "they shot her in the eye". Shots through the eyes are not always lethal; therefore that suggests that the guards are trying to prolong her pain. Another interpretation of this quote could be that by shooting her in the eye, the soldiers are destroying her vision, destroying all future prospects for the child, destroying her window into the world. Both poets have used symbolism in the poems. "How would you prepare to die, on a perfect April evening", where April is the beginning of spring and symbolizes life and rebirth. Similarly, Szymborska has written "overheard, a bird the shadow of its life-giving wings brushed their lips." The symbol of the bird is used to represent the freedom the prisoners desired. Moreover, this suggests that though a bird can be considered as something positive because it is considered as freedom, in this setting the author creates juxtaposition of freedom and imprisonement. Likewise April and spring are associated with sun shining and the author wants to contrast it with death. In both of the scenarios, the authors are creating contrast between their desires and reality. In conclusion, both "Shooting Stars" and "Hunger Camp at Jaslo" express the pain and suffering of the Jewish people by Nazi Germany.
Do you think it is important that writers engage with contexts beyond their own? Why?
When writers engage with contexts beyond their own, they are usually contexts that touch them emotionally and motivate them to write about them, even if they have not experienced them. This is known as empathy. A context has moved them tremendously emotionally that they have researched it and read about it in order to imprint their own perspective and interpretation. Personally, I do believe that it is important that writers engage with contexts beyond their own as more perspectives are being created and provided to the reader, eventually leading to the reader creating his own perspective and interpretation on the topic. In addition, it is significantly important to add that through engaging with contexts beyond their own, writers want to give a voice to those people that experienced the specific situation but did not have the chance or even the courage to talk about it and share their feelings.
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