You can find this article at http://www.pifmagazine.com/2012/01/my-father-stood-loading-his-gun/
Lucas Dean Fiser's, "My Father Stood Loading His Gun," makes the point that it's important to not shelter people and to let them be exposed to hardship, but it's also important to show love along the way to help them through. As Fiser takes us through a fourteen year old's first person account of his traumatic experience witnessing his suffering dog getting put down, we see how his use of details, imagery, and language come together to make this point.
The details Fiser chooses to add in this story really help us understand actions of the speaker's father. The dark details Fiser includes about the father's past and how his father was abusive show us how he was too un-sheltered, to the point where he wasn't given the love he needed and he was only experiencing the hurt. The father is stronger now because of this, but he is scarred. We see how the speaker's father also wants his son to be strong and not to be too sheltered when he says "You need to see this... ...you need to see how things are handled"(Fiser). The author also includes details of the father whispering lovingly into the ears of both the speaker's mother and the dog. This shows us that the father still finds it important to show love and compassion, and that he is not putting the dog down just to be cruel. The details Fiser chooses to include show us how it's important to let people be exposed to the hard parts of life but to still provide love to help them get through.
A lot of the imagery of this peace centers around the scars on the fathers arms. Images of purple scars make the audience think of pain, and how some pain can never be forgotten. The line near the end where Fiser says, "His purple burns were the only color in the landscape" forces readers to think about the burns and how this is a moment of pure pain for the speaker. The sadness of knowing that something like this has to be done, even if it will stop the dog's suffering is quite traumatic for a fourteen year old. This image of just the scars shows readers that this moment will stay with the speaker forever, and that it will become part of the speaker like the scars from the speaker's father became part of him. Pain is a part of life that needs to happen sometimes. Some of the other imagery, however, show us how the speaker will still be shown love to help him through this difficult time. Snow is brought up a lot throughout the story. The way the snow is described as lightly falling flakes and the way the dog dies in a blanket of snow makes it seem peaceful and loving, like it's comforting the characters in their hard time and it's caressing the dog into sleep. The contrasting images of the harsh scars and the constant but loving snow show readers love should always be there, especially in hard times.
The lack of figurative language in this piece is powerful and further adds to the point Fiser is trying to make. With a few exceptions such as the personification of the pen the sixth paragraph, this story uses all literal language. This makes the work seem more real and forces readers to see the raw pain of this experience on their own. The author doesn't want to shelter readers with the aid of figurative the same way the speaker's father doesn't want to shelter the speaker. He wants readers to feel the raw emotion of the piece for what it is.
Sydney, this is a great analysis of how Fiser used details, imagery, and language to portray his point. Without even reading the article, just from reading your response I was clearly able to see how this author used these different techniques to convey different points and make the reader feel and connect to different emotions. In your description of detail, with your specific examples I was able to see how you drew the conclusion the conclusion that people even though have to experience hardships in life, with the help and comfort of love, it is easier to get through. It seems Fiser's article would lack a lot if it did not display the father's sincerity when he whispered to the speaker's mother and the dog. Your description of the imagery in the article is also very good and clearly shows how essential the detailed imagery was to tie together the entire article. Your description of the scars was very good; I agree that describing the physical scars of the dogs probably left an emotional scar on the speaker. You also explained the use of literal language well and I like that you pointed out the importance of the lack of figurative language.
ReplyDeleteSydney,
ReplyDeleteWow, that was a powerful story; I can't say I really enjoyed it, but it struck at something in me, the reality of of existence, or something pseudo-deep like that. It was quite depressing, and thankfully your anaylsis was not. You are right in your examination of the sheer simplicity, the sheer hard-hittingness of this piece and how without using many embellishments it gets to a feeling only a few extreme things can produce in people. The only thing I would suggest you add would be examples of the lack of figurative language from the text, simply to beef up your last paragraph. Your ending certainly made sense, and examined correctly what was going on in the text, but it seemed a bit like an afterthought due to the paragraph's lenght. I would also suggest adding a conclusion, simply for the sake of adding a conclusion, for I don't think any of us has mastered the art of conclusion-writing (I know I haven't).