GCSE English Literature

1. War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy
The poem is about a man who had to travel to a war zone to take photos and create
stories about the conflict happening which would be presented to the public. It is
about the suffering he saw and how when people read the stories and see the
photos he took, they don’t understand what it was really like and they don’t care as
much as they should. The poem presents how when wars are going on, the people
back at home don’t know what is really happening and I think Duffy wants to show
the truth of war for the people fighting them.
In the last stanza it says “…from which his editor will pick out five or six” which
creates a sense of anger and bitterness that they will only pick out a few of the
victims when so many other people suffered as well. The stanza goes on to say
“…between the bath and pre-lunch beers” as if the stories are overlooked and the
reader isn’t affected very much because they don’t understand the pain and
suffering that the photographer saw.
The poet uses the simile “as though this was a church and he a priest preparing to
intone a Mass.” This phrase suggests the man feels he is responsible for mourning
the hundreds of victims because he is the only one that knows how many people
suffered- the newspaper only shows ‘five or six’ so they won’t think of the rest. It
could also suggest that, just as a priest presents mass, he is presenting the suffering
of war through his photos.
The poem makes the reader to think about the reality of war and how brutal it is on
the soldiers fighting, and also the innocent people that are killed. It causes us to think
about how the victims of war suffer but also the people who witness it and survive as
the man in the poem did. The character is haunted by memories of the war and
cannot forget the people he saw and photographed.