'Giuseppe' - Roderick Ford

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Roderick Ford, 'Giuseppe'

The speaker recounts a story told to him by his uncle. In Sicily in the Second World War, the villagers and the soldiers are starving. They take 'the only captive mermaid in the world' out of the aquarium and butcher her so that they and the troops can eat. The villager tries to convince themselves they are doing the right thing by arguing she is only a fish. We discover at the end of the poem that the speaker's uncle was the aquarium keeper, and so would have been very much involved in the slaughter of the mermaid. The speaker is thankful that his uncle shows some sign of remorse.

Commentary- 'Giuseppe' asks questions about the human capacity for evil. How do those perpetrate horrible acts justify and live with their crimes? Can terrible crimes ever be justified? Should the rights of individual rights to protect no matter what?

In his exploration of these issues, Ford is interested primarily in the way that communities and individually to themselves and others in their attempt to justify actions and assuage guilt. The villagers try to justify the slaughter of the mermaid by dehumanising her. The tension between their self-justifying lies and their tacit acknowledgement of her humanity is perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of this poem. Note the switch from the pronoun, 'she', 'it' on the first line of the second stanza: instinctively, they acknowledge her humanity only to subsequently overwrite it. In the same stanza, this 'she/it' tension is made clear:

"But the priest who held one of her hands

while her throat was cut,

said she was only a fish"

The act of apparent priestly kindness and compassion is made hypocritical by the juxtaposed violence. The priest's hypocrisy is confirmed as he subsequently justifies the slaughter. The 'she/it' tension can also be found in the juxtaposition of the two lines: "someone tried to take her wedding ring,/ but the others stopped him" And the fifth stanza- terse couplet- contains the truth in the first end-stopped line, followed by the lie they told in the second line.

"The rest they cooked and fed to the troops.

They said a large fish had been found on the beach"

Also, why would the villagers not eat the mermaid's head and her hands? Could it be because they are intrinsically human parts of her anatomy?

So it is not that the community is presented as intrinsically evil. Indeed, in many ways, their instinct is a compassionate one. But collectively they have shown to be able to convince themselves that their actions are justifiable. The poem is trying to understand how ordinary communities can carry out horrible crimes.

The poem's diction certainly adds to its powerful and shocking effects. It is stripped down, unembellished, almost anti-lyrical. For an illustrative example, look at the stark phrasing here:

"Then they put her head and her hands

in a box for burial"

There are no adjectives, there is no figurative imagery: just a plain monosyllabic frankness reinforced by the alliteration, especially of the solemn 'b' sound in the second line. The brutality of the villagers' actions is allowed to speak for itself. The simple diction also lends the poem the qualities of a fable or fairy tale. Equally, the verb 'butchered' in the first stanza is not figurative hyperbole- it is signifying what the villagers are doing. But there is one interesting use of figurative language in this powerful end-stopped line:

"But she screamed like a woman in terrible fear"

This simile is enormously shocking. it cleverly and compassionately embodies the issue about humanity that lies at the centre of the poem. It removes her humanity but her pitiful fear is a human one. And of course, it tells us that the mermaid is still conscious as they continue to butcher her.

Ford uses a framing narrative- the speaker is recounting a story told to him by his uncle. This opens up a dual perspective on the events. Giuseppe's first-hand account is wrapped in his nephew's judgemental point of view. It also allows Ford to reveal dramatically at the very end of the poem that Giuseppe was the aquarium keeper, and therefore was probably responsible for her capture and captivity, and so he must have been acquiescent in her slaughter. This might explain how Giusspee's biased account is coloured by his self-justification- especially when privileging the arguments of the so-called experts to confirm that the mermaid is 'just a fish'. The poem also ends with a noteworthy word, as the nephew thanks 'God' for his uncle's apparent remorse. This reference to God's ideal. But the nephew is thanking God- perhaps for his forgiveness. The nephew, who we can assume never had to experience the horrors of the second world war, is also judging his uncle's action. but the poem itself is more sophisticated than a simple condemnation; it strives to understand human responses to extreme experiences. And it is easy to judge if you have never been starving.