Free Write 03/20/08

A:
War: the colors I think of when I think of war are dark colors and orangish red colors.
the sounds I hear are huge bombs exploding or gunfire constantly going off. I hear people yelling out commands and sometimes there would be silence. I see men crawling on the ground toward the enemy and planes flying overhead attacking their targets.

Gunner: the colors I picture when I think of a gunner are Camo colors and bursts of orangish red. The sounds I hear are many gunshots being fired in succession. I picture a man kneeling or standing pointing out his target with the scope and firing.

Attack: The colors I picture when I picture an attack are bright red and orange colors from things exploding. I hear loud bangs from bombs being dropped and very loud gunshots.

B:
WORLD WAR II: My strongest associations for WWII are German troops, and Pearl Harbor. I picture many air strikes from fighter planes. I picture many explosions and ships sinking.

II.
My interpretations have changed about the poem. I realize now was 6 miles away from earth means, flying up above the earth. I see a different way of how he woke by the anit aircraft. Rather than from sleeping on the ground, he was hunched in a ball turret on a plane. Now that I know was a turret is the last sentence where he is being washed out of the ball turret with a hose is more graphic and real. The fact that he was washed out by a hose rather than being lifted out lets you know that the death he died was horrible to the point where it took a hose to wash him out.

The research on the author makes the poem a little more depressing because of the tradgedy the author experienced. Seeing how the events in the poem effected him, it is easier to realize how serious and real the events are in the poem.