How can you put "Death of the Ball Turret Gunner," into a historical and/or philosophical context. The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner...

This short poem is an excellent example of the communicative power of verse. The poet, Randall Jarrell, was a World War II veteran who served in control towers for the Army Air Corps,  which makes him personally invested in the historical context of this poem and its narrator.  The poem is written from the perspective of a ball turret gunner—a gunner who would be shackled beneath a bomber aircraft in his own turret, which here...

This short poem is an excellent example of the communicative power of verse. The poet, Randall Jarrell, was a World War II veteran who served in control towers for the Army Air Corps,  which makes him personally invested in the historical context of this poem and its narrator.  The poem is written from the perspective of a ball turret gunner—a gunner who would be shackled beneath a bomber aircraft in his own turret, which here is cast as a metaphorical womb—after he has been killed in battle. The brutal pragmatism with which the gunner is disposed of—"they washed me out of the turret with a hose"—reflects the feeling many World War II soldiers had; they felt that they were considered expendable, bred simply to be used by the "State." Later, the evidence of their sacrifice was washed away. The outlook of the poem is bleak, echoing the wartime work of Sassoon and Owen from World War I. There is little patriotism or pomp to it. 

Philosophically, what is arresting about this poem is the speaker's presentation of himself as an animal sent straight from his mother's womb into the belly of the gun turret, the service of the State, even before the birthing fluids have dried—"hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze." The choice of the words "State" and "dream" are particularly resonant given the context: during World War II, dreams struck many as a delusion of peacetime, and "The State" would have brought to mind the Soviet Union. This poem suggests that the American dream is only that, a dream, and that American soldiers are bred to serve the state like animals. Then, they are to be killed and disposed of—war is just as horrific everywhere. This is a provocatively grim philosophy which reflects the despair inherent in the historical context.