How do the poets present the theme of injustice in ‘War Photographer’ and ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’?
The poems ‘War Photographer’ and ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’ both show the theme of injustice. The poets have presented this theme through many different ways, including through the language, form and tone.
The poems both have a similar tone of suffering and loss. The idea of suffering suggests there is injustice and that individuals are suffering for the wrong reasons. In the first stanza of ‘War Photographer’ the line ‘with spools of suffering set’ uses sibilance to create a sound that is sinister and puts across the thought of suffering. The tone of suffering and loss also occurs in ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’, the line ‘She soon would have to forget…’ suggests to the audience that the mother knows she is going to lose her child and there is nothing she can do about it, presenting loss. This also presents the theme of injustice and suggests that the mother has lost her son unfairly.
The language the poets use also present the theme of injustice. Both poets use effective language to get across the theme of injustice. In ‘War Photographer’ the line ‘running children in a nightmare heat’ makes audiences feel guilty and angry because we think of children as young, innocent and unable to protect themselves. Bringing across the theme of injustice that innocent children are being affected by the war, and they should not have been brought into it all. The poet also uses the innocence of a child to present the theme of injustice in ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’. The line ‘Of unwashed children with washed-out ribs’ makes the audience feel upset and angry like the way ‘War Photographer’ does. Putting forward the theme of injustice and the suffering of children in a war that shouldn’t involve them, but they have been dragged into.
In ‘War Photographer’ the poet presents the theme of injustice through the reality of the pictures the photographer takes. The line ‘from which his editor will pick out five or six for Sunday’s supplement,’ tells the audience that a lot of the images won’t be seen, which suggests the suffering was for nothing and doesn’t convey the horror of war. Making it seem unfair to the sufferers that no one can feel their pain and loss. The line ‘The reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers,’ tells the audience that all the images the public see will only affect them momentarily, before they move on with their lives. This suggests that the public don’t understand what is going on and will never know how unfair the whole war is to some people and how they have been dragged into it for no reason.
The mood of ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’ presents the theme of injustice. Throughout the poem the mood is put across as death is inevitable and that no one can do anything about it. The enjambment of the line ‘Like putting flowers on a tiny grave’ links the flow of the poem to the race towards death that can’t be stopped. This presents injustice that it isn’t fair people are dying for no reason. The final line in ‘War Photographer’; ‘and they do not care’ suggests it is wrong that no one cares about the suffering of the innocent people in the war, this brings across the theme of injustice.
Overall the poets use a range of language techniques to present the theme of injustice. They use language that is effective and makes the readers empathise with the characters of the poems.