Giuseppe by Roderick Ford

Themes
1. Collective Guilt
2. Humanity's Dark Side
3. Moral boundaries
4. Pressure of war
5. Fairy tales relating to the human world
Who is Giuseppe?
1. The Uncle of the Narrator
2. The Aquarium keeper
Contrasts and ambiguities (there are a lot of them!)
1. People described
  1. Doctor
    1. A doctor should save lives but in this case allows the mermaids death
    2. Is NOT a vet, shows how the people present are aware she is more human than fish
  2. Priest
    1. "held one of her hands"
      1. Praying or holding her down?
  3. Fishmonger
    1. Represents the side which she is viewed as an animal
  4. Certain others
    1. Hints that people of a high authority are present
2. Mermaid
  1. Is one big metaphor for an outsider or enemy that the troops face in war
3. Language
  1. Deliberately flat and factual
  2. Only two adjectives and one similie used
Who is the narrator?
1. Gender is never mentioned
  1. However hints of being female
    1. The sympathy for the mermaid
    2. The use of the pronoun "they"
      1. Separates her views and theirs
    3. Would then be Giuseppe's niece
What on earth is the poem about?
1. The killing of the "only captive mermaid in the world"
  1. It is one large metaphor

Resource summary

	Created by Becca Smith almost 11 years ago