Martin and the Hand Grenade
Notes on ‘Martin And The Hand Grenades’
Subject Matter
Martin is a young boy presenting a grenade to his classmates as part of a show and tell segment of a history lesson. The classes’ reaction to the grenade is one of great excitement. In contrast, the narrator, the classroom history teacher, is disgusted by the weapon and the children’s excited reaction.
Themes
The main theme of the poem is the differing attitudes towards weapons which are symbolic of war. From that stems three other key themes - the debate about the inherent violence in the human spirit, the fascination with weapons versus the disgust for weapons, and the dichotomy that exists between our heads and our hearts. Foulcher also addresses other dichotomies - the past and the present, boys and men, innocence and experience, and of course, most obviously, the classroom and the battle field.
Foulcher puts forth a controversial topic for his adult audience to debate - the inherent violence in the human spirit. He uses the pun ‘mind fields’, as opposed to ‘mine fields’, to convey the violent and destructive fantasies gripping the children as they hold the grenade above their heads. Foulcher is, in a sense, posing the theory that the grenade is awakening the latent violence and propensity for destruction that exists just below the surface in all of us. He begs the question, perhaps violent and destructive fantasies are inherent in all humans, but by adulthood most of us have been conditioned to suppressed our fantasies in light of the devastating repercussions of acting upon them.
This debate closely ties in with the fascination with weapons versus the disgust for weapons theme. In ‘Martin and the Hand Grenade’ the eager children are fascinated by the adventure of war, unaware of the horrors involved. Children have no fear, hence they are fascinated by the weapon because they can not comprehend the horror involved in war. The teacher in the poem, however, is disgusted by the grenade,
Subject Matter
Martin is a young boy presenting a grenade to his classmates as part of a show and tell segment of a history lesson. The classes’ reaction to the grenade is one of great excitement. In contrast, the narrator, the classroom history teacher, is disgusted by the weapon and the children’s excited reaction.
Themes
The main theme of the poem is the differing attitudes towards weapons which are symbolic of war. From that stems three other key themes - the debate about the inherent violence in the human spirit, the fascination with weapons versus the disgust for weapons, and the dichotomy that exists between our heads and our hearts. Foulcher also addresses other dichotomies - the past and the present, boys and men, innocence and experience, and of course, most obviously, the classroom and the battle field.
Foulcher puts forth a controversial topic for his adult audience to debate - the inherent violence in the human spirit. He uses the pun ‘mind fields’, as opposed to ‘mine fields’, to convey the violent and destructive fantasies gripping the children as they hold the grenade above their heads. Foulcher is, in a sense, posing the theory that the grenade is awakening the latent violence and propensity for destruction that exists just below the surface in all of us. He begs the question, perhaps violent and destructive fantasies are inherent in all humans, but by adulthood most of us have been conditioned to suppressed our fantasies in light of the devastating repercussions of acting upon them.
This debate closely ties in with the fascination with weapons versus the disgust for weapons theme. In ‘Martin and the Hand Grenade’ the eager children are fascinated by the adventure of war, unaware of the horrors involved. Children have no fear, hence they are fascinated by the weapon because they can not comprehend the horror involved in war. The teacher in the poem, however, is disgusted by the grenade,