Textual Analysis: What Every Soldier Should Know by Brian Turner - Essay Example

A Soldier Apparently, soldiers are known to follow instructions from their seniors. Never the less, this particular soldier has been sent to a place where he does not want to go because people around the area are known to hate soldiers. No one is going to like some soldiers who have fights with them. Brian Turner has had a bad experience in the war, and he is now trying to teach every soldier what to do. As such, he is showing the people how the situation was at the time he was in war. In this poem, different strategies were used, each one made the point of the writer. Thursday is a day when the people open fire at the enemy, you would not know if it is for a wedding or not. Some of them will judge by the situation he experienced. The author says, “if you hear a gunfire on a Thursday afternoon, it could be for a wedding, or it could be for you” (Brian 609). By using a metaphor, the author argues that the people in the place he fought used gunfire to celebrate or to kill the enemies. The gunfire sound symbolizes death or happiness. Moreover, he articulates that the place is noisy, but people always open fire for a reason. Thus, through personal experience, the author argues that he did not know how to protect himself, and as such he kept telling people that Thursday afternoon was busy by gun shooting as some people got married while others died. At one point, the author argues that learning the language of the enemy could assist in making some good moments in life. Thus, the author writes, “sabah el khair as an effective word which means good morning” (609). Additionally, the use of atmosphere by the writer at this point is aimed at making people feel alright and trying to make the audience see some bright side of the enemies. On the other hand, the readers can see that there are some good scenes in this soldier life. There is a good feeling from the quote as this soldier is learning the peoples’ language, through conversing with them. Hence, the soldier has evidence from both the killers and those that do not care about the war. In the book, the author uses logic to argue that words can be hard to comprehend but in war everything is similar. Thus, “men wearing vests rigged with explosives walk up, raise their arms and say Inshallah”(610), as one of the quotes in the book agitates the soldiers because there is use of atmosphere to make some people mad, and others confused, further indicating that everyone is suicidal. Hence, Inshallah means Allah be willing. Apparently, the author is alleged to understand the meaning of “Inshallah” as a holy word for the Muslims, but instead chooses to use it as a code for bombing. Conversely, the author might have heard a different word and mixed up with this one. Consequently, no blame should be placed on the author since war is present, every soldier is on their nerves, and no person is ready to face death. In fact, through the quote the author emphasizes on acting fast once they hear this word. For some people, this is like warning. They will be relaxed, because they now know what this word mean. The author attempts to make people believe that soldiers also lived in fear. In his quote, “there are men who earn eighty dollars to attack you, five thousand to kill”(610), he uses atmosphere to give some fear and wondering on how people would kill anyone for money as if they have no feelings, a situation that leaves every reader feeling confused and scared. As a result, the author purports that everyone should hate such characters, and instead has the same feelings as those that had the soldiers in the past. Through experience from an Arab country where some people felt excited over the situation, he argues that some people will react the same, and some of them will have some shame. Furthermore, the author uses a metaphor “and any of them may dance over your body tomorrow” (610) to lay down the feelings between the Americas soldiers and the enemies, which he terms as being complicated. Basically, dancing over a body is impossible. People should be heartless to do that as a human act. This means that people will be happy with the death of a soldier and they will be dancing and celebrating over it. The author’s logic is that people can be mixed, but can never be trusted. Apparently, people act like soldiers but from inside they are full of hate. In this regard, soldiers are expected to have no feelings for anyone there even as people try to kick them out of their country. If anything, soldiers are there because they have been forced by the military to be there. They have a common hope that everyone should be in his home safe. In a bid to continuously hook the readers on the book, the author is expected to give some hints before the big event. Basically, he says “Inshallah means Allah be willing. Listen well when it is spoken” (609). This saying is a clear demonstration of a foreshadow where the reader keeps on wondering what would happen if a person uses the word ‘Inshallah’ and if it meant ‘god be willing’and if there was a possibility of a bad thing happening. The people should hear it well when it is spoken, and they should pay more attention for upcoming things. Similarly, the reader is faced with confusion and pays attention for the next event where the author speaks about suicidal people who could easily be used to blow themselves up. He gives them hints that they do not control themselves because they argued that god be willing for things. The author continues to use metaphors in the book to articulate that money is capable of changing people from human to machines. For instance, there are men who earn eighty dollars to attack you, five thousand to kill” (610). The writer is using metaphor in this case. Through this, the readers are made to understand that men could turn to a killing machine, by paying them money because they are perceived not to have any feelings. Thus, money could make people do anything including killing, attacking and capturing. The emphasis here is that people have made business through money and will therefore do anything to get money. In a general sense, the author uses point of view strategy as second person to communicate to the readers by way of grabbing their attention. For instance, he says, “if you hear gunfire on a Thursday afternoon, it could be for a wedding, or it could be for you” (609). This strategy assists the author to be closer to the reader and behave as if he is seeing the reader. Through this, the author advises the soldiers to show how war has been, a situation that makes the reader imagine how the war is going, the fear of war and the main interest which is in the poem. The entire poem reminds me of my neighbor, who went to the same war as the author. He fought some Arab, a situation that was so bad. Moreover, soldiers thought that it was wrong for them to be at that place. Conversely, he made me feel distressed by affirming that people kill each other for no reason, but because they have money, power, and hence do not need anything else except fun. That made me thinks a lot. Each soldier has a different point of view from the war. When they are back, they tell their stories based on what happened to them there. I love to hear the stories from the soldiers. But all of them needed one thing, and that is the end of the wars. By using those strategies, he made our feelings involved in the poem. He hooked us up from the topic to the end of the poem. I believe that every strategy makes the poem strange. Work Cited: Turner, Brian. “What Every Soldier Should Know.” Writing As Revision. 4th Edition. Beth Alvarado & Barbara Cully. Boston, MA: Person Learning Solution, 2010-11. 609-610. Print Read More