In the poem Mirror by Sylvia Plath she states, "I'm not cruel, only truthful" really compares to Randalls poem by showing us the realities of war, not what we want to hear or see. The characters in Game, Speaking of Courage, Mirror all talk about a self image. Randalls poem is an outlier from the poem The Bells by Anne Sexton because it's about a crazy lady and The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner is about a death of a soldier. All in all, The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner is a poem that shows the side of society that nobody wants to see. .
The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell is a super short poem but packs a powerful meaning. Randall was clearly saying that war is like a paradox or in other words like an abortion. He explains the ball turret area as womb like enclosure in the plane's belly when he states, " From my mothers sleep" and " I hunched in its belly." Told from the gunner's point of view of his last moments of life. "I fell into the state" the gunner never got to live to his full potential.The different state provides a death womb for the gunner. Going "into state" the gunner "loosed from its dream of life" knew his death was upon him not even having a fighting chance. Waking up only to die among the "black flak and the nightmare fighters." His body only to be washed "out of the turret with a hose." The poem leaves a scar on peoples mind that war is a result of wasted life.
Randall Jarrell wrote this poem while he was in the military working as a control tower operator. In this case Randall had firsthand experience on what it is like to be in the army watching young soldiers going out to war. "Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life" creates an image of the fears and mortality going into war that these soldiers had to face. The author has empathy and sensitivity for the young soldier that went out to his death bed.
