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The Pedestrian, Barn Owl And Weapons Training

Good Essays

The Pedestrian, by Ray Bradbury, Barn Owl, by Gwen Harwood and Weapons Training, by Bruce Dawe, are texts which effectively covey various aspects of power. The Pedestrian is a short story set in 2053, and speaks of the power that technology has over society. Barn Owl, is a poem written about a child who commits a sin against an innocent owl, and Weapons Training is a poem set at the time of the Vietnam War, and is voiced by a drill sergeant speaking to his team. All three texts convey manipulation and powerlessness, two aspects which relate to either having an abundance of power, or lacking power. These notions are explored through the use of various literary techniques and dialogue. Texts, The Pedestrian, Barn Owl and Weapons Training all …show more content…

Power can be used to distinguish status and authority. In the text, Weapons Training, Dawe has used a structure that enables a continuous flow with no stopping. Dawe has purposely lacked punctuation to ensure that there are minimal stops, and therefore does not allow the subjective to put a word in, thus the subjective lacks all power as it is completely out of their control to say or do anything. There are no comas or full stops throughout the piece, but there is a common use of rhetorical questions, which too is a technique that doesn’t require a response, leaving the subjective with no power to speak. In the line, “and you know what you are? You're dead, dead, dead” the persona answers the question he poses which eliminates the opportunity for the subjective to reply. By restricting freedom of speech for the subjective, the power of the persona is accentuated. Similarly, statuses are explored through the notion of powerlessness in the poem Barn Owl. In the quote, “My first shot struck. He swayed, ruined” the use of consonance with the repeated ‘s’ sound creates a serious tone. Poet Harwood mentions the subjective was struck on the first shot, therefore not giving it a chance to save itself, thus taking its power away from it. The use verbs “swayed, ruined” creates a shift in tone and speed, to portray the subjective as helpless, in contrast to the persona who had earlier, in the second stanza, proudly observed and constructed her plan to win her “prize”. The powerlessness of the owl is able to highlight the power the persona has against it. Furthermore, powerlessness is again explored in The Pedestrian when Mr Mead is stopped by police simply for walking at night, rather than being at home watching television like the rest of society. Mr Mead is stripped of his freedom of movement when he gets questioned by the police for walking. The dialogue between

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