--> The poem “Peace and War”(253) by Margaret Avison reminds me of when you try going to a vending machine and your chips get stuck, every time. This boy seems very innocent and I see him as being a young boy no
t knowing what to do after his ice-cream does not dispense: “tried the ice-cream bars / but none came back / though his coin went in.”(3-5)
--> The title love and war is a metaphor for what the boy is going through with the automat. The boy wanted nothing more than his ice-cream which he had probably saved up his allowance to buy for himself; that made up the love end of the title. The war comes up when the machine will not dispense the boy’s ice-cream and the man behind the counter is trying to make him pay again to get an ice-cream from behind the counter:
“He asked at the counter.
Said the counter man, No,
I’ve got bars in the freezer
but I’ll not hand one over
till you pay me too.”(6-10)
--> The boy has a war going on within him after the counterman denies him of his ice-cream. This war happens because the boy doesn’t know what to do. The boy asks himself questions to try figure it out: “Should the boy go away? / Who should say should? / What makes the counterman so mad?”(11-13) These are legitimate questions. It seems as if the boy has never gone through this before and he is scared. The boy saved up all his money to go to the automat and when he does he is denied of his ice-cream, and the counterman was not very nice about it.
t knowing what to do after his ice-cream does not dispense: “tried the ice-cream bars / but none came back / though his coin went in.”(3-5)--> The title love and war is a metaphor for what the boy is going through with the automat. The boy wanted nothing more than his ice-cream which he had probably saved up his allowance to buy for himself; that made up the love end of the title. The war comes up when the machine will not dispense the boy’s ice-cream and the man behind the counter is trying to make him pay again to get an ice-cream from behind the counter:
“He asked at the counter.
Said the counter man, No,
I’ve got bars in the freezer
but I’ll not hand one over
till you pay me too.”(6-10)
--> The boy has a war going on within him after the counterman denies him of his ice-cream. This war happens because the boy doesn’t know what to do. The boy asks himself questions to try figure it out: “Should the boy go away? / Who should say should? / What makes the counterman so mad?”(11-13) These are legitimate questions. It seems as if the boy has never gone through this before and he is scared. The boy saved up all his money to go to the automat and when he does he is denied of his ice-cream, and the counterman was not very nice about it.
By: Rachelle Beuk
1 comment:
Wow, this is such a short poem! Your interpretation of the poem is very interesting, and I like how you interpreted it and analyzed the metaphor! On the surface, the poem appears very straightforward and irrelevant; it narrates a boy struggling to get his ice cream from the automat and his troubles with the counterman. There’s nothing too special there. Nevertheless, the title with the poem has a much more elaborative and deeper meaning than what appears. Likewise to your observations, I think that’s possibly one of the explanations of how the boy must be feeling. I believe most people can relate themselves to this poem in some ways. Personally, I too have many unfortunate encounters with vending machines that eat my money and refuse to give me my food. It totally gets on my nerves particularly on the days that I’m extremely hungry or I have only so much money on me and the machine just have to be my worst enemy. It’s even quite embarrassing at times when I have to furiously kick the machine to get my food, especially with people staring at me thinking that I have some sort of anger issues when they really just don’t understand what’s going on. And, once I finally got the food that I wanted, it’s like I’m at peace and satisfied. =)
Rosalie Pham
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