The Manhunt by Simon Armitage

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  • Created by: Iris02
  • Created on: 13-05-19 11:03
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  • Manhunt by Simon Armitage
    • Key ideas/themes
      • Time
        • The gradual trusting of someone
          • Laura is slowly getting to know her husband again, and he is slowly letting her find out
        • The delicacy of time, how one fragile thing can actually mean a lot
      • War
        • The effect, mentally and physically war can have on a person
          • Physically wounded and scarred
            • "blown hinge of his lower jaw", "damaged, porcelain collar bone"
          • Mentally scarred also
            • "unexploded mine buried deep in his mind"
            • Fear, worry, PTSD, anxiousness
          • How it can affect the people around them
            • "only then would he let me", repetition of "only then"
      • Love
        • The intimacy between two people, and how this can be changed
          • slowly getting to know each other again, intimacy
          • intimacy of tracing the body
    • Context
      • Armitage saw a Channel Four documentary on a couple
      • A man and his wife re-united after he returns from being a soldier in Bosnia
      • From the perspective of the wife
    • Structure/tone
      • Broken up lines could represent the small steps she is taking, and how long it is taking
        • brings the audience with her, tracing eventually to the main problem
        • couplets within the stanzas possibly representing the couple together, and despite what has happened they will not be separated
      • rhyming at the end of the lines gives it a regular rhythm, and helps to separate the stanzas from each other, showing that they are separate steps in coming closer to him
        • Untitled
    • Language
      • the slow movement, and slowly being able to explore his body, showing hesitance
        • "only then", "explore", "mind and attend"
          • the movements used are gentle and soft yet intimate
            • Perhaps showing the fragility of the soldier
      • Many similes/metaphors that show the damage on his body
        • "frozen river which ran through his face"
        • "blown hinge of his lower jaw"
          • possibly a metaphor for how he doesn't talk about how he feels
        • "parachute silk of his punctured lung"
      • "Widened" shows how he is slowly letting her in, and becoming more comfortable
        • "foetus of metal", discovering the cause and beginning
        • "tightened and closed", fear and worry, root of issue

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