Flowers Of War Analysis

A composer masterfully constructs aspects of power that is offered through the textual integrity of poem and film. The satirical dramatic monologue of Weapon’s training by Bruce Dawe and Father and child by Gwen Harwood, both demonstrate the power of death that enhances one’s present perception. In cohesion with Dawe’s poem, Zhang Yimou’s film Flowers of war, a wartime epic during the ‘Rape of Nanking’ of the Second Sino-Japanese war both illustrate the power of war. Both Yimou and Harwood relate to the power of innocence as inherently vital to humanity.
Composers accentuate the power of death is enforced through one’s understanding of the transience of life and finality of death is both timeless and integral to the formation of humanity’s
This fear of death and the sergeant’s knowledge of the soldiers impending death was the solitary component that was capable of terrifying his men into submission. The repetition emphasizes the knowledge which the sergeant holds; “and do you know what you are? You’re dead, dead, dead,’ the aggressive flow of words coupled with the sudden use of punctuation or caesura breaks the erratic rhythm of the poem and consolidates an abrupt end or finality of death. Likewise, Harwood effectively conveys the power of death in her text Father and child, exemplifying the notion that the living cannot escape the ravages of time and aging; portraying the persona’s experience of death as a natural part of life. The diptych “Barn Owl” captures the child’s maturation and gaining of wisdom that is accentuated from the experience of death as a shocking and violent occurrence. The metaphor; “I leaned my head upon my father’s arm, and wept, owl-blind in early sun for what I had begun”, the power of death erodes the innocence that is inherent within childhood and elevates the persona’s self-knowledge that is attained through the experience of death. The allegorical title “Nightfall” of Harwood’s “Father