Welcome to hiroshima
Austin Yang
Ms. Dempsey
English 10B, pd.3
31 January 2014
What was Hiroshima Really Like? Mary Jo Salter may not know all about Hiroshima after the bombing, but what she does know is that no words or pictures can explain the horrors of what it was truly like. The pictures and mannequins in the museum are put behind glass just like how the world views the bombing, trivializing how bad it truly was. The author uses specific language such as descriptive imagery and expressive figurative language in a somber poem “Welcome to Hiroshima” to persuade the audience that people can never understand the terror of the bombing and nothing can re-create it . No museums, pictures or words can describe what happen to the people of Hiroshima because all those things are behind a glass barrier, one can see it, but they cannot feel the sorrow and it does not arouse people’s feelings. The narrator is “thirsty for history” (line 8), but once she sees the museum she is very disappointed because it portrays the real events in a way where it minimizes the true devastation of humanity during the time of the bombng. She uses descriptive imagery to put a negative connotation on how the museum cannot explain the events. According to the narrator the events of Hiroshima are an enigma and nothing can be a memento for it. As the narrator walks through the museum she writes, “And through more glass are served, as on a dish of blistered grass, three mannequins. Like gloves a mother clips to coat sleeves, strings of flesh hang from their fingertips; or as if tied to recall a duty for us.” This graphic imagery shows the horrific actuality of war, but these mannequins are behind glass
Ms. Dempsey
English 10B, pd.3
31 January 2014
What was Hiroshima Really Like? Mary Jo Salter may not know all about Hiroshima after the bombing, but what she does know is that no words or pictures can explain the horrors of what it was truly like. The pictures and mannequins in the museum are put behind glass just like how the world views the bombing, trivializing how bad it truly was. The author uses specific language such as descriptive imagery and expressive figurative language in a somber poem “Welcome to Hiroshima” to persuade the audience that people can never understand the terror of the bombing and nothing can re-create it . No museums, pictures or words can describe what happen to the people of Hiroshima because all those things are behind a glass barrier, one can see it, but they cannot feel the sorrow and it does not arouse people’s feelings. The narrator is “thirsty for history” (line 8), but once she sees the museum she is very disappointed because it portrays the real events in a way where it minimizes the true devastation of humanity during the time of the bombng. She uses descriptive imagery to put a negative connotation on how the museum cannot explain the events. According to the narrator the events of Hiroshima are an enigma and nothing can be a memento for it. As the narrator walks through the museum she writes, “And through more glass are served, as on a dish of blistered grass, three mannequins. Like gloves a mother clips to coat sleeves, strings of flesh hang from their fingertips; or as if tied to recall a duty for us.” This graphic imagery shows the horrific actuality of war, but these mannequins are behind glass