Analysis Paper1
Hanna Crawley
10 October 2014
Engl 2305
Analysis Short Paper
“The Gun Joke” by Jamaal May is a poem that became popular recently due to a shooting of a young man that caused national attention. This poem is about how in society today we hear stories on the news about people getting shot by guns and how its something that is too common in our world now. Throughout the poem, May uses examples that people can relate to and understand., repetition of certain words and phrases, along with a chilling dark tone. Jaamal May jumps right into his poem describing how there are always stories in the news about shooting after shooting and how we hear these stories almost everyday about not only a single person getting shot, but also crowds of people like he says in one line “A young man/old man/teenage boy walks into, an office/theater/daycare/club and empties, a magazine into a crowd of strangers/family/students.” This line alone gives off a vibe that almost just makes your heart stop because its something that we are all too familiar with. Almost every year there is a national story about a shooting in a public place that kills many. I think by providing this type of imagery in the poem it really gives the reader an understanding of what he is talking about in the poem. In another lines from the poem May states, “What do you call it, when a shotgun tests a liquor store’s bulletproof glass?” and this is another familiar scenario we have all heard of that happens often that does not always get the same attention as a mass shooting, but is still sets an image that many people know of. These two lines can simply paint a picture in the reader’s mind. Within “The Gun Joke” Jamaal May uses the repetition of different words to get his point across. Some words he uses that repeat throughout the poem are: “funny”, “joke”, “hear or heard”. May starts off his poem saying the word “funny” four times in just the first three lines. He does this in not a laughing type of way, but
10 October 2014
Engl 2305
Analysis Short Paper
“The Gun Joke” by Jamaal May is a poem that became popular recently due to a shooting of a young man that caused national attention. This poem is about how in society today we hear stories on the news about people getting shot by guns and how its something that is too common in our world now. Throughout the poem, May uses examples that people can relate to and understand., repetition of certain words and phrases, along with a chilling dark tone. Jaamal May jumps right into his poem describing how there are always stories in the news about shooting after shooting and how we hear these stories almost everyday about not only a single person getting shot, but also crowds of people like he says in one line “A young man/old man/teenage boy walks into, an office/theater/daycare/club and empties, a magazine into a crowd of strangers/family/students.” This line alone gives off a vibe that almost just makes your heart stop because its something that we are all too familiar with. Almost every year there is a national story about a shooting in a public place that kills many. I think by providing this type of imagery in the poem it really gives the reader an understanding of what he is talking about in the poem. In another lines from the poem May states, “What do you call it, when a shotgun tests a liquor store’s bulletproof glass?” and this is another familiar scenario we have all heard of that happens often that does not always get the same attention as a mass shooting, but is still sets an image that many people know of. These two lines can simply paint a picture in the reader’s mind. Within “The Gun Joke” Jamaal May uses the repetition of different words to get his point across. Some words he uses that repeat throughout the poem are: “funny”, “joke”, “hear or heard”. May starts off his poem saying the word “funny” four times in just the first three lines. He does this in not a laughing type of way, but