Giuseppe by Roderick Ford

Giuseppe by Roderick Ford

1. Themes

   • Collective Guilt
   • Humanity's Dark Side
   • Moral boundaries
   • Pressure of war
   • Fairy tales relating to the human world

2. Who is Giuseppe?

   • The Uncle of the Narrator
   • The Aquarium keeper

3. Contrasts and ambiguities (there are a lot of them!)

   • People described
     • Doctor
       • A doctor should save lives but in this case allows the mermaids death
       • Is NOT a vet, shows how the people present are aware she is more human than fish
     • Priest
       • "held one of her hands"
         • Praying or holding her down?
     • Fishmonger
       • Represents the side which she is viewed as an animal
     • Certain others
       • Hints that people of a high authority are present
   • Mermaid
     • Is one big metaphor for an outsider or enemy that the troops face in war
   • Language
     • Deliberately flat and factual
     • Only two adjectives and one similie used

4. Who is the narrator?

   • Gender is never mentioned
     • However hints of being female
       • The sympathy for the mermaid
       • The use of the pronoun "they"
         • Separates her views and theirs
       • Would then be Giuseppe's niece

5. What on earth is the poem about?

   • The killing of the "only captive mermaid in the world"
     • It is one large metaphor