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C2 Sample Essay 39 (School or family shapes one's personality)

In the minds of ESL exam candidates, e ssay writing is one of the most daunting tasks they are required to complete, regardless of the level of the exam, the administering body or the ease with which they themselves use the language. The same applies to students who are asked to write an essay by their teachers at school.  In the previous sample essays posted on the blog, the main point I stress is the need to become acquainted with this form of writing (as opposed to writing a letter, review or report, for instance), to get a feel of what authorial voice is and how to organize and progressively express the arguments you wish to make in a coherent manner.  Unfortunately, the best way to prepare for exam writing or learn how to write good essays for school is to read as many essays from as many sources as possible, then write as

Karl Shapiro – Auto Wreck

https://argutelegacy.blogspot.com/2018/04/shapiro-auto-wreck.html
Karl Shapiro's poem "Auto Wreck" was published in 1942 in his book Person, Place, and Thing, a collection of 51 poems.

December 7,1941 was a turning point in World War II when the Americans, devastated by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, decided to actively engage Axis forces by deploying the military. After years of 'neutrality' (the US had already been helping the British by sending money, ammunition and food supplies since the spring of 1941), action had been imposed on them, so to speak.

It seemed his being drafted into the army and serving in the Pacific Theater brought about Shapiro's inspiration to write. Four books of poems were published from his days in the army. Stationed in New Guinea, he wrote V-Letter and Other Poems which gave him the Pulitzer Prize in 1945. 

"Auto Wreck" can be construed as the direct result of what Shapiro experienced during the war. The hollow logic of war, the arbitrariness of human life and death, the idiocy of apathy within a context of normality are the ideas this poem evokes to readers, though war per se is not mentioned. It is as if Shapiro wishes to explain the futility of life to someone who has never experienced it in combat, but who can bring to mind similar thoughts and feelings having already been a witness to road accidents.


I have seen the poem broken up into three stanzas as well as four. To me, four stanzas seems more logical (read the poem here) due to the gradual development of the logic behind the poem as description of the scene moves from outside, societal, organized forces (the ambulance in stanza one pertaining to welfare, the police officers in stanza two pertaining to law and order) to individual, inner thoughts (the on-lookers in stanza three) and then on to the decisive conclusion, reminding one of the final lines of sonnets of yore.




Despite its length, to me, this poem is a prime example of how modern poetry can be as complex, restricted, precise and meticulously planned as the more conventional poems of Petrarch or Dante Alighieri were 700 years ago.

The notes that follow are to guide class discussions of the poem. I fear that a more lengthy critical analysis must follow at some point in order to bring this poem's true value to the forefront.




Karl Shapiro – Auto Wreck


  • Life
    • 1913- 2000, Baltimore, Maryland
    • Russian-Jewish roots
    • Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winner (1945), served in the army (WWII)
  • poem:
    • stanza 1:

        • medicine / health / body
        • focus on scene / event
    • stanza 2:

        • focus on living beings: the authorities + bystanders (“We”)
        • (no humans present in stanza 1: all agents are objects, use of passive voice + personification)
        • results of crash emphasized:
          • we are deranged
          • cops: impersonal, not flustered by human drama
          • society has become clinically sterile of emotion
          • cops are a part of practical bureaucracy
          • choice of word ‘cops’
          • emphasis on the word “gutter”
    • stanza 3:

          • witnesses linked to accident victims through imagery (splints, sickly, tourniquets, convalescents)
          • philosophical musings on death:
            • witnesses try to rationalize using common sense
            • basic human terror = Who’s next?
            • “Who’s innocent?”: meant as question or as ironic statement?
    • stanza 4:

          • conclusion: reminds one of sonnet
            • opening: problem (accident / who shall die?)
            • ending: resolution / conclusion (logic found in other deaths, but not in accidents)
  • imagery:
    • medical
    • cityscape

  • themes:

      • mortality
      • randomness
      • society’s sterility / coldness

  • title:
      • who or what is the auto wreck? (society, us individuals, ambulance / cops, driver?)



Click the picture for explanations of terms used

http://argutelegacy.blogspot.gr/2018/04/literary-terminology-list-2.html
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