Text Changes As The Naval Sister example essay topic

The title of this essay states that I must include another text, of my choice. 'The Naval Sisters Tale' is written in the form of a transcript, whereas 'The Obituary of Captain David Goodwin' is in the form of an article. I wanted to choose something different to both of these texts, so along with these passages, I have chosen to incorporate 'Back to the Army Again' by Rudyard Kipling. I decided on this text as it has refrains (which I find particularly interesting and fun to say), also because I think it contains a sense of irony and holds an ambiguity within its simplistic structure.

I shall start with 'The Obituary of Captain David Goodwin'. The first things that struck me about this particular text was the fact that it had been printed in The Daily Telegraph, a fairly conservative newspaper that would have wanted to promote nationalism and preserve our countries remaining war heroes via our memories, and show that "we" are in fact a fearless nation! It is a very factual piece, and contains very short, and 'to-the-point' paragraphs. The title itself, a seemingly 'dull' and 'uninspiring' title, gives us an almost immediate insight into the lack of emotion within the text. The purpose of this text is to chart Captain David Goodwin's career and life, although we are told little about his life outside of his career. It shows his involvement within the war, and highlights his achievements.

This article focus's in on the "best" part of his life, his naval career sea command. It can also be considered to be a genuine mark of respect, seeing as it is an obituary. I thought that it might also be a form of war propaganda, as it makes the war seem exciting and fun. It certainly portrays Captain David Goodwin as being a war hero. The quote included in the article, "one horrid little man firing at us" emphasizes the valour of him. He is referring to the Italian army as if they were a joke.

The text starts off by stating his personal records, such as his age. It then gives a brief overview of his involvement in the war and the awards / medals that he gained. The author of this has done this so that we know what type of person we are dealing with, from the very second that we begin reading the text. After nine, very brief paragraphs dealing with Captain David Goodwin's participation in the war, the obituary returns to the beginning of his life, well, omitting any information about his personal life.

I think that this has been done so that the only thing that the reader has got to attach to Goodwin is his naval career, and can look upon him only as an officer in her majesty's navy. After stating his date of birth, the author starts to describe in detail the beginnings of his career. The facts of his first boat are given, as is the amount of time he spent in the Naval Air Division. We are told of his promotions, the places he travelled to and of his first sea command. The writer chose to do this so as to make clear to the reader, the importance and relevance of his "first and only sea command". As we know how long Goodwin spent training to be a Captain, we can place the correct significance on his Naval attainments.

The author appears to have chosen not to linger on his death. It is implicit in the last paragraph by the words "first and only". Although we know he did not die because of this incident, we are aware that this had a lasting impact on his life, the quote "the most exciting and rewarding job I ever did" informs us of this. It also gives me a small insight into the type of person that Captain David Goodwin was.

I think he comes across as being slightly pompous and jingoistic, he describes the enemy as being "saucy so-and-so's". I think that the author of this was trying to portray him as being very brave and heroic, and also as being educated. I do think that this comes through too well though. This text is written in the third person, the reason for which is because, the first person is dead (hence the 'obituary'.

The use of abbreviations is very prominent, especially within the use of army jargon. "RN" and "C-in-C" and "RAF" are a few examples of this. The author of this text decided to use such abbreviations because of the implications that they carry. Abbreviations imply a sense of importance and authority. 'The Obituary of Captain David Goodwin' contrasts directly with 'Naval Sister's Tale'. What interested me most about this text was the fact that it was written as a transcript.

It had obviously been written phonetically, but almost to a rather extreme case. I think that Fletcher (the author) decided upon this format so as to highlight the speaker's confusion and memory loss. The text starts with a false start "I was m... I was" and with repetition "in... in... ". It does make the text rather hard to follow as the syntax of this text is not similar to that of regular texts.

The author used these to illustrate just how anxious the Naval Sister was to portray the correct image of what she had been through during the war, and I think perhaps to ensure that the reader of the text can get a full understanding of just how elderly and 'doddery' the Nurse was. There are interruptions for the duration of this text, which help to guide her to speak about the things that the author wishes to hear about. The first paragraph sets the scene for her tale. It informs us that she was called up to a big Naval hospital. We then get a short history of the actual boat and how it came to be what it is.

The conversational repair in the first paragraph, .".. I... was... I went", accentuates the apprehension of the Naval Sister. It makes the reader pity the speaker as, although they cannot associate themselves with her, they can imagine what she must have endured and how hard it must be for her to go through it all again. The first interruption is immediately followed by another one as the Naval Sister starts to go off on a tangent, it is almost as if she doesn't want to talk about her time on the ship and would rather inform the reader / listener of the history of the boat. Throughout the text we are informed of the different types of people who stayed on the boat. We are told that they encountered physically and mentally disturbed people.

This is relevant in the build up to the Naval Sisters partial insanity, because if she spent a vast proportion of her life with people who were crazy and if she saw many a horrible things, then it would stand to reason that she was trying to block it out of her mind. When discussing superficial things, such as what there was to but and what dresses to wear to the governors house the Naval Sister becomes quite enthusiastic and talks for along period of time. The sections of the text describing these incidents (and describing Lady Astor and the picnic) is full of expressive utterances, such as "this most wonderful". They have been used to emphasize the fact that the Naval Sister wants to linger on the happier memories, and again, I think that these particular sections could be considered as war propaganda. The picture being painted by these particular extracts is one of a fun, exciting war. A war in which there is time to look nice and to enjoy yourself.

A war in which you are given opportunities to visit places, wear clothes and do things that otherwise would not be open to you. The tone of this text changes as the Naval Sister talks about the psychiatric patients, this is noticeable through her change of lexical choice. One of the most important ideas being portrayed through this text is that the sister says that she does not think that the Germans intentionally bombed the boat, seeing as it was a hospital. This is in direct contrast with "The Obituary of David Goodwin", because Goodwin views the enemy as an annoyance who are out to get the British, whereas the Naval Sister can see that they don't have much choice in what they are doing. This text was obviously written for a listening audience. It is an oral narrative written in the first person.

It has a loose structure and the Naval Sister responds to prompts, which consists mainly of spontaneous impromptu speech. It is not Standard English; the unusual syntax highlights this. Disjointed sequences have been used because of the nature of what she is talking about. There is a very prominent sense of confusion as the Naval Sister looses her trail of thought. The structure of 'The Naval Sisters Tale' is very different to that of 'Back to the Army Again'. 'Back to the Army Again' has two main features: the refrains, which are observations of the training when re-entering the army, as opposed to the stanza's which give reasons as to why he has returned to the army.

This text is full of war jargon, such as "troopship", "port" and "goose-step". It is phonetically written and has very prominent colloquialisms. The regular rhyme scheme (AA BB CC) and the rhythm make the text light hearted and help to reinforce the simplistic tone. This suggests that the persona of the poem is uneducated. The last stanza of this text has a rhyme scheme that does not fit in with the rest of the poem; this is because this stanza carries a particular message that the author wants to point out and to make the reader take note. The use of non-standard English emphasizes the accent and dialect of the persona, which I think could reflect his social background.

There use of hyphens and exclamation marks to express ideas of excitement are prominent throughout the poem. This piece has a monotonous tone and throughout the text there is an underlying question as to whether or not the character in the text is actually ecstatic about returning to the army, or if he is angry. I think that perhaps Kipling is making a comment about conscription. How when people have completed there mandatory years in the army, they know no other career and so have got to either go back into the army, or do nothing. The army takes away your choices, and when the army gets rid of its soldiers, it is getting rid of people who know what is what; and by getting rid of the best of the army; the army has driven these people out onto the street.

Through out this text, the persona of the poem is hinting at how hard it was to pretend that he had not been through the army training before. "I don't know a gun from a bat", "I couldn't 'el 'old in's tr aight" and " 'oo said I knew when the troopship was due?" are just a few examples of this. The first stanza ensures that the reader fully comprehends the thorough implications of going back to the army. In the refrain, Kipling makes clear that the persona of the poem has no legitimate ID papers, or any tricks up his sleeve. His imitation of the queen in stanza two guarantees that the reader can sense the bitterness of the persona of the text of having to return to basic training.

Stanza three introduces the idea of the persona's lack of qualifications, and so lack of choice. Whereas stanza four reiterates the concept of the characters re-training, and how tough it is for him to keep it a secret. The fifth stanza informs us, the readers, of how he feels at home in the army, and how much nicer it is than being on the street. This ties in with the ideas in the last refrain, ideas about him being "out o' the cold an' the rain". The following refrain is, again, the persona denying any knowledge of military procedures. The final stanza stands out from the others because it has a different rhyme scheme and a different number of lines.

The reason that this particular stanza has been set-a-side from the others is so that Kipling can draw attention to his views on the particular matter of conscription: that by conscription you are effectively cutting out any other career options that may have been open to them; and by getting rid of the people who have been conscripted, you are losing the finest soldiers in the army. The vivid use of accent and dialect also helps to emphasize the resentment and bitterness felt by the persona of this text, towards the authority that conscripted him and left him with no choice other than to lie his way back into the army. "But drives 'em to cheat to get out o' the street An' back to the Army again!".