HBL Learning

Task 1

Background Information:
This poem is about the Vietnam War which happened between 1962 and 1971. The main conflict in this war would be the use of "Agent Orange". Agent Orange is the code name for a herbicide and defoliant—contaminated with TCDD—used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War.

According to Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 deaths and disabilities, and 500,000 children born with birth defects

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#Rainbow

Task 2

1) Point Of View
This poem is both written in the third's person view point and the intellectual viewpoint. This intellectual point of view sees the entire war and shows how the Americans had caused vast devastation and pain caused to the innocent Vietnamese. This could be seen from "America did not foresee" and "Nefariously America led astray" whereby the poet tries to show America's mistakes and the lessons which could be learnt from using herbicide wars again.

This could be written in the third person's view point as the country America is being used as the comparison tool with Vietnam. Hence, the poet here is trying to judge the rights and wrongs of America from the person's own viewpoints.

2) Setting and Situation
The situation at which Agent Orange is being used is very dire, due to the impact of this virus on the Vietnamese. According to Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to herbicides, resulting in 400,000 people being killed or maimed, and 500,000 children born with birth defects. Hence, the situation in Vietnam is dire

The setting would be how the Vietnamese civilians die a 'colourful death'. The different colours (not only Agent Orange) of herbicides were also used which created a deathly and inescapable setting. "Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!" shows that the overall combination of the colours is deadly, and that also explains why the poem is named "Rainbow Death"


3) Language and Diction

Personification was used, whereby America here was personified as a person used for comparing. Diction was used whereby the phrases were seen to possess some sense of sarcasm. From " Now thinking twice" and "America did not foresee", the poet is trying to mock America.

The poet is trying to convey that casualties in war is large-scale. The use of diction in "potpourri" suggests the meaning of combination or a mixture of subjects. In this case, "potpourri" would mean the combination of many deaths due to war.

Another good use of diction would be in the word"deceit" meaning the act or practice of deceiving or concealment or distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading. The speaker is telling his readers that the government misleads the people when countries go to war to conceal the government's true purpose of going to war which is mostly negative. This will encourage people to take part unknowingly and even manipulated into fighting.