Manhunt and In Paris with you relationship difficulties

English Homework- “How are relationship difficulties presented in ‘The Manhunt’ and one different poem of your choice

Simon Armitage presented relationship difficulties in “Manhunt” firstly by using a series of couplets. “Phase” and “days, “Trace” and Face”, “Rest and chest”, “Explore” and “jaw”.  This creates a sense of fragmentation which reflects the emotions of the solders wife as she tries to understand the person her husband has become after serving in war. Fragmentation means to collapse or break down of social relationships; this shows that the author wanted to express how war has causes relationships to break down, violence from war changes it “feel the hurt of his grazed heart”. However fragmentation also means pieces of exploded bombs or grenades. This tells me that the husband has been injured in war, most likely because of a bomb, their relationship has been literary shattered them apart from each other, “blown hinge”, “fractured rudder”. “Trace” and “face” shows how physically and mentally the soldier has been affected by war. He has mentally shut himself off in “an unexploded mine” (protective mental state) and won’t let himself or even his wife “face” his emotions. It is almost as if the wife is trying to get to know her husband again or “trace” him.  This connects to the use of a pun in the title; “The Manhunt”, as it is hunt and capture of a man. The poem is about a wife’s search for her husband that she has metaphorically lost as a result of war. “Explore” and “jaw” also shows how the wife is desperate and trying hard to find her husband. “Explore” tells me that the wife is searching for her husband longingly but gently and slowly as she knows that he has shut himself off from others and herself: “blown hinge of his lower jaw”, “hinge” represents the door to the husband’s emotions.  The author uses the word “blown” in order to show the reader how delicate their relationship is and how it could ‘break’ at any moment because of the husband’s state of mind and body. This relates to the real world how many soldiers who come back from war suffer from posttraumatic stress; where they get depressed, anxiety and shut themselves off from others. The overall purpose of the author using couplets is to show that after war most peoples relationship will never be the same again ; one of the couple will always have a part inside them broken or hidden , and the other will always be searching for their partner. It is not until the end of the poem where the wife “comes “close” to the part of her husband that she knew before war. However the words “come close” suggests that their relationship will never be truly fixed or healthy.

Difficulties in “The Manhunt” are also presented by Simon Armitage…