Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

In the first line, "From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State," what does "my mother's sleep" most likely represent?

• Memories of a time of naïve warmth and nurturing

• The author's strained relationship with his mother

• The speaker's desire to return to his mother

• Memories of unexpected betrayal and naivete

In the first line, "From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State," what does "fell into the State" most likely represent?

•   the speaker's feelings of fear of the war

•   the speaker's falling into a state of deep sleep

•   the speaker's feelings of loss of control and betrayal by the state

•   the speaker's falling into an unknown state after death

In line 2, "And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze," what is the significance of the words "wet fur froze"?

•   The speaker is showing the bravery and fortitude gunners had to survive in the ball turret.

•   The speaker is contrasting the mother's natural warmth to the unnatural coldness of the state

•   The speaker is comparing the state to a mechanical beast

•   The speaker is conveying his attitude toward the courageous life of a ball turret gunner

In line 2, to whom or what does the pronoun "its" refer?

•   the speaker

•   the plane

•   the speaker's mother's dream

•   the state

What is the significance of the phrase "hunched in its belly" in line 2?

•   It is a simile that compares the the speaker to an animal

•   It is a metaphor that compares the speaker to the state

•   It is an allegory that presents the state as a beast

•   It is an allusion to the brutality of WWI

Why might the author include the detail "Six miles from earth" in line 3?

•   To increase suspense by showing the literal location of the plane

•   To indicate how powerful the State is

•   To reference the number six, which is associated with evil

•   To insinuate that the speaker is detached from his life

What does the speaker mean when he states, "loosed from its dream of life"?

•   The speaker’s life is cut so short that it feels like a brief dream

•   The State dreams of life for all of its soldiers

•   The speaker is able to predict the time of his death

•   The speaker is loosed or detached from the leader he aspired to be

What is the significance of line 4, "I woke to black flak and the nightmare of fighters"?

•   The line increases suspense and action in the poem

•   The speaker's life is so brutal that he wishes it were all a dream

•   The speaker's life is so brief that he wakes to death, which is contrasted to the "dream of life."

•   The line offers sound devices to help trivialize the war, such as the assonance in "black flak."

What is the impact of the last line of the poem, "When I died, they washed me out of the turret with a hose"?

•   It is a turning point in which the speaker passionately foreshadows his own death.

•   It is a turning point in which the speaker dispassionately announces his own death.

•   It is a turning point as the speaker dreams of his own death.

•   It is a turning point as the mother realizes what has happened to her son.

Which word best describes the speaker's tone toward his death?

•   indifferent

• despair

•   macabre

• indignant