Report – Children in the Darkness (Conflict)
Background: This conflict mainly takes place in Vietnam in year 2009, nearly 40 years after the Vietnam War. The poet, Henry M Bechtold used to be serving in the Vietnam War and frequently visits it as his soul lives there, according to his biography. He was in his hotel in Saigon and discovered the news of a small boy with an automatic rifle flashed in the news channel. This was probably a child soldier in present day Vietnam and thus he wrote a poem about it.
Poem Analysis (Annex A) –Steps in Analysis
1. Point of View (Evidence): The voice of the speaker is dramatised as seen from the repetition of “Could We” which questions the speaker consistently . The speaker acts as a sense of morale which disagrees completely with child soldiers as seen from “There are Children in the darkness Who have not Seen the Light”. The tone of the speaker is strong and demanding as seen from “With their life and blood be poured Down some endless thirsty hole”. He offers a intellectual yet morale Point of View in a social context as seen from the relentless self questioning and his choice of diction and the usage of repetition – “There are children in the darkness” and “Back into the darkness”.
2. Point of View (Elaboration): The speaker’s has a morale sense of duty with a mindset of rightful justice as seen from his voice being dramatised inside the poem due to the consistent repetition. The speaker feels the urgent need to cultivate child soldiers to realise their childhood instead of being under the influence of violence at such a tender young age which rips them off their innocence which acts as a vital hope in a society marred with constant violence . The speaker’s intellectual Point of View acts is found in the poem as his relentless desire to help these child soldiers regain their innocence is a signal for justice and righteousness, the speaker also expresses the urgency for a change as seen from his Point Of View as seen from his harsh “lash” on war and its violence.
3. Situation and Setting (Evidence): The setting is a combination of both emotions and social. This can be seen from “Chalk” and “Blackboard” which in turn changes to “war”, “blood” and “darkness”, implying the educational context of society metamorphoses into a violent adult social context for these children. Child soldiers are popping up more and more in the Vietnamese society. The nature of the context psychological as seen from “Or will a war consume them” and “Their body and their soul”.
4. Situation and Setting (Elaboration): The central ideas of the poem are raised through the emotional and social setting – they are mainly violence and the loss of innocence of a child due to him being a child soldier. The fact that it is emotional is mainly because it is sad and disheartening for the speaker to discover that young children have already been forcefully immersed in the adult world of violence, losing their innocence which is rare in such a violent society, the speaker knows that innocence is hope in the world but it is now gone, thus sending a message of urgency to the world in this poem . More and more child soldiers are appearing in the Vietnamese society, signalling the fact that the poet suppresses the child aspect of innocence as it is now gone and he magnifies, foregrounds the aspect of violence within the child soldiers, implying the great amount of corruption in the society.
5. Language/ Diction (Evidence) : There is the usage of figurative language, mainly metaphors , symbols , personification and also repetition . Metaphors are used in the sense that innocence is depicted as a door which needs a key, representing education to unlock it as seen from – “Chalk and Blackboards will not be” and “To this door there is no key”. War is personified as a human who consumes the child’s souls – “Or will a war consume them” and “Their body and their soul”. Darkness symbolises the child’s entering the adult world of violence light symbolises a child’s rightful innocence.
6. Language/ Diction ( Elaboration ) : The poet’s colloquial usage of language is effective in conveying the meaning of the poem and the language is used to reveal the truth that child soldiers should be rightfully entitled to their innocence and a child’s world instead of being forcefully pushed into the world of violence.
7. Personal Response (Evidence) : I acquire a strong message from this poem : Violence wrecks us all causing us to lose any sign of humanity in all of us.
8. Personal Response (Elaboration) : This poem effectively shows the horror and how sinister violence is , it is even capable of taking over a pure soul , a child’s soul which is extremely frightening , the fact that even a child who has not really seen nor experienced the real world out there is already overwhelmed with violence signifies one thing : Once you immerse into violence , there is ultimately no path out nor a way out , it will eventually cause you to lose your humanity.
Done by: Gary Leong (16)
Class: 2A1
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