Weigl shuts his eyes in a futile attempt to prevent himself from seeing the image, but the memory is so ingrained within him that he is not able to dispel the image from his mind, even when he intentionally shuts his eyes. The image that he recalls is of “girl/[r]unning from her village, napalm stuck to her dress like jelly” (20-22). The use of the word “girl” implies innocence and youth. However, the girl is not “running” for pleasure, but is rather fleeing her “village” in excruciating agony caused by the “napalm stuck to her dress like jelly.” The simile “napalm stuck to her dress like jelly” is cruelly ironic. Jelly is a sticky substance that should fill be the sweet filling in children’s sandwiches. In contrast, this jelly is a barbaric instrument of war, that brutally incinerates people alive. Weigl’s recollection becomes increasingly vivid as he recalls the girl’s “hands reaching for the no one/who waits in waves of heat before her”(22-24). Weigl is forced to relive watching a suffering child reach out in a desperate and fruitless attempt for salvation. The intrinsic horror of this memory is
Weigl shuts his eyes in a futile attempt to prevent himself from seeing the image, but the memory is so ingrained within him that he is not able to dispel the image from his mind, even when he intentionally shuts his eyes. The image that he recalls is of “girl/[r]unning from her village, napalm stuck to her dress like jelly” (20-22). The use of the word “girl” implies innocence and youth. However, the girl is not “running” for pleasure, but is rather fleeing her “village” in excruciating agony caused by the “napalm stuck to her dress like jelly.” The simile “napalm stuck to her dress like jelly” is cruelly ironic. Jelly is a sticky substance that should fill be the sweet filling in children’s sandwiches. In contrast, this jelly is a barbaric instrument of war, that brutally incinerates people alive. Weigl’s recollection becomes increasingly vivid as he recalls the girl’s “hands reaching for the no one/who waits in waves of heat before her”(22-24). Weigl is forced to relive watching a suffering child reach out in a desperate and fruitless attempt for salvation. The intrinsic horror of this memory is