The Death of the Ball Turret gunner

In the poem, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner, Jerrell uses time,

irony and symbolism to depict the life and death of the ball turret gunner.

In the drab and desolate background of world war II the gunner is hunched

upside down in the belly of a bomber aircraft flying bombing missions over

Germany. He is fighting off bullets and flak, constantly staring death in the

face. The life expectancy of the turret gunner is short. The stench of the

previous occupant still Lingers. Jerrell scribes from the first person a

monologue of this ill fated gunner. We hear the gunner speak to us

from the grave. The brevity of the poem is short. The life of the gunner is

short. Most strikingly, the poem whisks us in time from birth to death.

Perhaps the gunner is experiencing the death flash. His whole life flashes

before him in an instant and we are reading his thoughts. The irony,

symbols and choice of words Jerrell uses set the tone of the poem and

leaves the reader with mixed emotions. In horrific times of armed conflict

everything is turned inside out. What we think of as normal is abnormal.

Our values are inverted. Life becomes cheap. Jerrell’s choice of metaphors

and words has a traumatic impact on the reader.

In a clever twist, Jerrell uses time to shorten time from decades to

seconds. First, he advances time as if he knew nothing in life matters but

death. The gunner goes immediately from birth to preparation for death.

“From my mothers sleep I fell into the state,” line 1. It’s clear the gunner

was born of his mother’s womb, “mother’s sleep,” and proceeded straight to

the “state” or government. What happened to the life in between? In the

poem the Gunner, looking back, knew he is going to die. So everything in

between has no value. He goes immediately from the birth phase of life to

the ball turret gunner in combat and is killed. So from a dead person’s point

of view, nothing in life seems important. Second, when confronted with

death, time seems to stop. The Gunner awaits the inevitable. “Six miles

from earth, loosed from its dream of life,” line 3. While flying six miles

high and awaiting death the gunner undergoes a suspension of time. In that

moment, he experiences that “dream of life.“ His life unreels before him in

a flash. It was the “dream” of his “life” unraveling before him. Jerrell

captured the mental image of death by manipulating time. The total

freedom the gunner felt, of being “loosed” or free from the nightmarish

elements of combat is measured in seconds.

Jerrell expresses irony in this upside down period of time through the

use of symbolism. In the poem the same word images combine to give both

life and death. First we find the child being born. “And I hunched in the

belly till my wet fur froze.”. line 2. Metaphorically the gunner (baby) is in

the belly (ball turret), of the aircraft (womb). This conjures up the idea

the baby is in the womb of the mother for birth. Ironically it is the gunner

in the aircraft preparing to be born into death. This state of affairs works on

two levels. “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose,” line

5. One level is the metaphysical “hose,” symbolic of the mother’s umbilical

cord, gives life to the baby (gunner). At another level, the “hose”

(umbilical cord), gives death to the gunner (baby). The “hose” both gives

life, as in birth; and takes life, as in abortion. In an ironic reversal of roles,

the poem offers the “hose” in death, not birth. Second, we read “ Six miles

from earth…,” line 3. In death, we are buried six feet under. Here, the

gunner meets death six miles high. He is already in this coffin. And closer

to God.

Jerrell’s clever use of time, symbolism, and irony, with the proper

selection of words paint the life and death of the ball turret gunner.

He sped up time because there is no life, only death. The symbolism is the

mother in term and delivery of life. But really, there is no life, only death.

The irony gives the notion life is death, death is life. In the poem there is no

Life between birth and death. Only a dream like state where there is neither

life, nor death. The descriptive words set the tone and parallel both life and

death. While these are a few of the elements in the poem, they describe so

much in so few words.