Carolyn Forche’s “The Colonel” is a creepy and unsettling poem to read, and it definitely shocks you a bit the first time you read it. The beginning describes what seems to be a normal dinner with the Colonel and his family, but then suddenly takes a disturbing turn at the mention of a sack of human ears (reading this part always reminds me of the story of how Van Gogh chopped off his left ear). The ears on the table are out of place, and it’s unsettling that Forche compares them to food (dried peach halves). It’s unclear who these ears were collected from or why the Colonel even has them in the first place, but we can see that the Colonel is a bit of a madman. Trying to imagine what the narrator feels at this point gets me thinking about The Book of Eli when Denzel Washington unknowingly walks into a cannibal couple’s house in search of somewhere to hide. He doesn’t sense that something is wrong until the pair shows him the fresh graveyard in their garden, and then he realizes he needs to desperately get out of there. In “The Colonel”, it’s unclear whether the Colonel actually has malicious intentions or if he’s just trying to be creepy, but readers are definitely left in an uncomfortable place as the poem comes abruptly to a close.
Either way, I know that I’ll probably never be able to eat a dried peach again.
I couldn't agree more. The fact that the poem starts off with the description of what seems to be a luxurious house and then turns to mentioning the ears on the table adds to the creepiness of it. However, you get a hint this is coming because there is a gun mentioned in the first few lines. I didn't notice this while reading the poem, but in retrospect it seems like a bit of foreshadowing. It is also quite interesting that at the end of the piece,the colonel makes a sarcastic comment on if the narrator will use her experience to write poetry, and that is exactly what she does. I think the narrator does a very good and unique job of expressing her emotions, and describing the creepy, dark situation she is in.
ReplyDeleteI was also caught completely off guard by Forche's seamless transition from the mundane to the macabre. This poem reminded me of Van Gogh as well. I wonder how many other people thought of the same instance? I honestly can't think of any other stories involving missing ears, however I did notice how ears in both of these cases are really symbols representing something other than just ears. In "The Colonel", I thought that the final image of the ears on the floor was quite powerful. I think one of Forche's main purposes in the final image of the ears was to illustrate how even without the bodies they belong to, the ears can still hear. The eerie image of ears listening to the ground--as if they could hear something approaching from afar--kind of made me imagine a horde of earless zombies coming for the Colonel.
ReplyDeleteThis was definitely was a very strange poem (it does not seem like it is a poem though). I was very much intrigued, as I think someone has stated earlier, the antithetical descriptions that are presented throughout the piece. It is alarming when the poet, after describing a nice, peaceful setting, throws in words to catch the reader's attention ("daily papers, pet dogs, a pistol. . ."). Overall, the poem in the beginning is peaceful, and the ending is macabre. Someone stated earlier the poem went from "mundane" to macabre, and I would not necessarily agree with this. I think the terse sentences and the imagery make it rather interesting, not boring.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, severed body parts are always symbolic (has anyone read Heart of Darkness?). We have read in other passages that some people use poetry and other writings to enact social change. Also, the Colonel, we can assume, is an elitist (as suggested by his name and the description of his house). Often people in powerful positions do not like social change, so I think he cut the ears of people so they would not be able to "hear" the message of the poets, thus not giving the poets much power to change things. This is just a suggestion though, I could be wrong.
While I agree that the poem definitely had some disturbing aspects to it, I also think that it was a meaningful commentary on military dictatorships and how they are seemingly all-powerful. The Colonel knew that his guests were from the media and still went and did what he did. I was not expecting the poem to twist and turn the way it did and was surprised at the intense situation that occurred at the end. The human ears being dumped out of a paper bag gave me a chilling feeling that lasts to this day. We see that the Colonel is sadistic and inhumane, but with the ears, we get a sense of his complete insanity. Despite the disturbing scenes the poem depicts, I very much enjoyed how thought-provoking it was.
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ReplyDeleteI think that the colonel is not only be being super creepy with the ears but also may be trying to brag about himself. It's kind of similar to scalping that was practiced by some native american tribes and colonists in the early years of american colonization. These scalps were used as trophies to signify someone's victories in battles. From the perspective of the colonel, these ears may signify his greatness, but from our modern perspective it just shows his barbarism. The readers also develop their view of the colonel through the description of his house. Although it appears to be normal at first, the fact that "Broken bottles were embedded in the walls around the house to scoop the kneecaps from a man's legs or cut his hands to lace," and the "gratings (were) like those in liquor stores," show its true nature. I think that this description gives the reader insight to the unstable environment that the colonel lives in, and shows how the colonel's savage behavior may have manifested.
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