The Frightening End- depiction of "The death of the Ball Turrett Gunner"
...protected, nurtured, and warm. While in reality, the gunners “state”(1) was very much endangered, unprotected, cold, and very susceptible to death, the complete opposite of what he knows or dreams of feeling. Moving into line two Jarrell says, “And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.” (2) Once again, he is referring back to the pre-birth “womb” stages of his life by mentioning the belly. Jarrell is also taking that warmth and giving you the complete opposite, “…till my wet fur froze.” Here he is showing you just how cold it really is, his fur trim to his jacket is actually freezing. While in the ball turret, the gunner is a fetal position, much like the position you are in while still in the womb. Obviously the gunner means it to be the belly of the ball turret, yet he metaphorically refers back to his mother. The gunner then moves from the safety of his mother to the safety of his own dream. “I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.” (4) From the safety of his dream as stated in line three, “…loosed from its dream of life,” (Line 3) the gunner moves back into a nightmare. A nightmare, which is in reality his current state in the belly of the ball turret. The narrator then moves finishes his explanation by completing the life...