The Minefields Diane Analysis

Sometimes in life people face tragic experiences that haunts them for the rest of their lives. In "the minefields" by diane theils, a poem about a man who has been haunted by memories from his childhood and how it effected him in everything he did. Theils used dark imagery and symbols to create a picture in the readers mind about a life changed forever. The poem argues that one traumatic incident can affect you and the people around you for the rest of your life.

As the poem first begins it was told in second person. The poem first starts off by telling the story about two boys running from town to town trying to get home. Then one of the boys suggests to take a shortcut through the fields he knew of. He said that there was lettuce growing in one of them and since they haven't eaten all day that would of been an advantage. His friend started running trough the field and as he looked
They say that their father told them the story one night during dinner and how they kept on eating after he was done. After that it tells how the father was traumatized from that incident and how it affected his actions towards his children. The kids describe how everything he did related back to minefield incident. They said it was carried under his good intentions and how they heard it through his voice when he was angry and how they buried his bruises with sleeves from his anger. It shows that with the little things the man did his emotions came out in anger because of the minefield incident. The kids then express the way the minefield effected them, they say how even after years later and "continents away" how they expect anything to explode at any time like their father. Then the last sentence in the poem ends with a twist. The kids say how that at any giving second their scared how they like their father might be left alone just standing there to re-cover by