Violence is an all too commonplace occurrence in America. Because Tony Barnstone realized this, he wrote the poem “Parable in Praise of Violence” to illustrate America’s attitude towards violence. “Parable in Praise of Violence” by Tony Barnstone, is a poem with five stanzas consisting of five lines each. The poem begins by thanking America for being violent in the first stanza. Then it goes on to describe how a gun works. In the third and fourth stanzas a poem is compared to a pistol, and then Barnstone’s life is compared to a gun. The poem ends with a description of how and why America has become so violent. However before the poem begins, there is a quote from H. Rap Brown “Violence is as Americas as cherry pie.” This sets the theme for…show more content… The theme of the poem is shown in the word choice and punctuation. One might notice that each line ends with a comma except for the last which ends with a period. Furthermore, one might also notice that the whole stanza is simply one sentence. The commas represent the shots that are fired at the target, and the final period is meant to represent the shot that kills the target. In the first line Barnstone calls the automatic pistol a “good machine” This is meant to underscore how Americans view violence, as something that is useful and necessary. The second line emphasizes this by calling the pistol efficient. After this when the line says “what’s preserved and what is wasted” one should notice how the first “what’s” is shortened as if to preserve time, whereas the second “what is” is fully written out as if to show wasted time. Furthermore, as Barnstone describes the pistol as efficient in deciding what is preserved and what is wasted, he is not only referring to energy but also to lives. “What’s preserved” is referring to the object or person that is being protected by this act of violence. “What is wasted” is referring to the life that ends as a result of this violence. Barnstone goes on to describe how an automatic pistol works in the third and fourth lines, “then recoil, cock and shoot again,…show more content… (Barnstone).
There are also several references to Moby Dick which are meant to remind the reader of the first stanza. The first line is describing how America views death as something that can be caught. The second line shows how America does not understand death. The “spear-stuck beast” is not only a reference to Moby Dick but also a symbol for death, because the harpoon was aimed at death and death is now struck by the spear. This also means that America is Ahab. America is trying to catch death and eventually goes down with it.
Overall, “Parable in Praise of Violence” uses unique words, symbolism and phrasing to show that America is to blame for its attitude about violence, and that Americans have been numbed to the idea of death. The poem also asks why Americans love violence and illustrates Barnstones anger at America for being violent. Barnstome used these to prove that Americans have become far too accustomed to violence and this has numbed Americans to the reality of
