Topic > "Home and Away" and Auden's Poetry: Examining Wartime Art

W.H. Auden's poetry investigates a dignified society oppressed by political ideology and then war. The prevailing political motivation of a difficult time period and the destructive impact of the war are also illustrated in the Australian picture book Home and Away (2008, John Marsden) Both Auden and Marsden represent their ideas on political governance and the manipulation exercised by regimes for the sake of control activities associated with governing a country or a 'area that reflect judicious power. Their texts represent how political perspectives, language and graphics influence an individual's understanding of the world itself. Say no to plagiarism. Why violent videos. 'Shouldn't games be banned'? Get an original essay Auden represents the prevailing political motivations of his time, a period in which the destructive impact of totalitarianism distorted the social norms of his era; his personal experience of social instability informed his poetry. Auden's gripping ballad, "O What is that sound that so thrills the ear" (1932), reflects the growing tension as tyrannical leaders (Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini) exercised their power. In 1953, his "Achilles Shield" reflected the authoritarian aggression of the Cold War that manipulated the population of even the Western world. In this sense, Auden's "Oh, What's That Sound" explores the destructive reality of military power. The rich description given by the speaker is juxtaposed with the harsh reality of the situation as the soldiers march up the hill to take her husband. The poem's opening line ("Oh, what is that sound that makes the ear so quiver") creates sudden tension, connoting a rich cacophony. Through the use of rhyming couplets such as “drumming, drumming/coming” juxtaposed with the first verse, Auden portrays the buildup of terror that comes to fruition in the last stanza. As the soldiers pass the “parish priest's door,” the allusion to the loss of religious values ​​indicates the ruthless and inhuman nature of the soldiers. This characterization is further exemplified when the wife questions “the vows” her husband had made at their marriage. Lost “votes” demonstrate the power of political affiliation, military oppression, and fascism; conformism, religious values ​​and the law are powerless. In the last stanza, the “eyes burn” of the soldiers, a description that exemplifies the dehumanizing aspect of the soldiers, symbolizing them as an instrument of repression. Thus, Auden's "Oh, what's that sound" shows the destructive rather than glorious effects when politics, the government of the population, comes at the expense of the individual's beliefs. Marsden's Home and Away also explores the intrusion of power into people's lives; politics breeds wars and readers experience the fate of the Australian family who become refugees. The context of the book reflects 21st century concepts of displacement and refugee treatment. Marsden graphically and textually represents the transition from order to disorder, from security to danger, from optimism to despair, captured in the diary entries of an 11-year-old. The picture book's title page provides immediate tension, juxtaposing the title of “Home” and “Away,” where “Home” is scrawled. The title references the popular Australian soap opera of the same name, so the reader is positioned to feel a sense of familiarity which is then overturned by the family's exclusion from Australia and their desperate attempt for safety elsewhere. Marsden positions the reader to become the refugee, the outsider. The blue color “Home” symbolizes stability,..