A DOCTOR'S JOURNAL ENTRY FOR AUGUST 6, 1945 SUMMARY (2024) WITH QUESTIONS & ANSWER
Get complete information about "A doctor's journal entry for august 6, 1945" written by Vikram Seth, summary and line by line explanation as well as additional and important questions of the poem.
A DOCTOR JOURNAL ENTRY FOR
AUGUST 6, 1945 -
ABOUT THR POET-
Vikram Seth, a popular poet and novelist, was born on June 20th, 1952, in Calcutta. His father was an executive of Bata Shoes, while his mother, Leila Seth, was the first woman to be appointed judge of the Delhi High Court and also become various chief justices of the State High Court.
He was educated at Doon School in Dehradun. His teacher (mountaineer ) named Gurdial Singh influenced him easily. “Gurdial Singh guided Vikram in many ways... encouraged him to appreciate Western classical music and instilled in him a love of adventure and daring,” according to Leila Seth. Singh described Seth as an indefatigable worker who put enormous energies into other spheres of school life, such as drama, debate, first aid, music, and editing.
Seth then went on to complete his ‘A’ levels at Tonbridge School in England after leaving Doon.
Some awards he has won include the Padma Shri, Sahitya Academy Award, Pravasi Bharatiya Summan, WH Smith Literary Award, and Crossword Book Award. Mappings and Beastly Tales are among some of his famous works that have been acknowledged in this category.
INTRODUCTION TO THE POEM-
A DOCTOR JOURNAL ENTRY FOR AUGUST 6, 1945,is a remarkable poem about the aftermath of an atomic bomb explosion. This tragic poem describes the condition of the survivors of the atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima during the end of World War II on August 6, 1945.
A DOCTOR JOURNAL ENTRY FOR AUGUST 6, 1945: SUMMARY / LINE BY LINE EXPLANATION -
LINE: 1 – 14;
THE MORNING STRETCHED CALM, BEAUTIFUL, AND WARM.
SPRAWLING HALF-CLAD, I GAZED OUT AT THE FORM
OF SHIMMERING LEAVES AND SHADOWS.
SUDDENLY
A STRONG FLASH, THEN ANOTHER, STARTLED ME.
I SAW THE OLD STONE LATER BRIGHTLY LIT.
MAGNESIUM FLARES? WHILE I DEBATED IT,
THE ROOF, THE WALLS, AND, AS IT SEEMED, THE WORLD
COLLAPSED IN TIMBER AND DEBRIS, DIST SWIRLED
AROUND ME—IN THE GARDEN NOW—AND WEIRD,
MY DRAWERS AND UNDERSHIRT DISAPPEARED.
A SPLINTER JUTTED FROM MY MANGLED THIGH.
MY RIGHT SIDE BLED, MY CHEEK WAS TORN AND I
DISLODGED, DETACHEDLY, A PIECE OF GLASS,
ALL THE TIME WONDERING WHAT. HAD COME TO PASS.
The poem begins with a fine and fresh morning with calm. The doctor said that it was dawn, and he was clad as he had just gotten up from bed and stretched his arms and legs to remove the sleeping feeling. He was gazing outside at the gleam and shadow of the leaves. Suddenly, he was too strong with stray lights, and the old stone in his room lifted up by itself. The doctor wondered whether the flashes were magnesium flares, which are seen during a war.
In the next moment, the doctor discovered that the room and the wall of his house had collapsed and the debris was scattered over. Dust covered up the whole scale. A doctor's strongly found that his drawer and undershirt disappeared from his body. They were all burned in the flashes. The doctor then tells how he was wondering about his check and thigh and that he was bleeding on the right side. He removed a piece of glass that had entered his body. He was wondering what had really happened to him.
LINE: 15 – 21;
WHERE WAS MY WIFE? ALARMED, I GAVE A SHOUT,
WHERE ARE YOU, YECKO-SAN?' MY BLOOD GUSHED OUT.
THE ARTERY IN MY NECK? SCARED FOR MY LIFE,
I CALLED OUT PANIC-STRICKEN TO MY WIFE.
PALE, BLOOD STAINED, FRIGHTENED, YECKO-SAN EMERGED,
HOLDING HER ELBOW. 'WE'LL BE FINE, I URGED-
'LET'S GET OUT QUICKLY. 'STUMBLING TO THE STREET.
The doctor came to his senses and remembered his wife. He called out his wife by her name, "Where are you, Yecko-san?"
Yecko-san looked pale, frightened, and had blood stains on her body, and she came out holding her elbow. The doctor assured his wife that they would be fine. He suggests that they should get out of the house quickly.
LINE: 22 - 35;
WE FELL, TRIPPED BY SOMETHING AT OUR FEET.
I GASPED OUT, WHEN I SAW IT WAS A HEAD:
'EXCUSE ME, PLEASE EXCUSE ME -'HE WAS DEAD:
A GATE HAD CRUSHED HIM. THERE WE STOOD, AFRAID.
A HOUSE STANDING BEFORE US TILTED, SWAYED,
TOPPLED, AND CRASHED. FIRE SPRANG UP IN THE DUST,
SPREAD BY THE WIND. IT DAWNED ON US WE MUST
GET TO THE HOSPITAL: WE NEEDED AID -
AND I SHOULD HELP MY STAFF TOO. (THROUGH THIS MADE SENSE TO ME THEN, I WONDERED HOW I COULD)
MY LEGS GAVE WAY. I SAT DOWN ON THE GROUND.
THIRST SEIZED ME, BUT NO WATER COULD BE FOUND.
MY BREATH WAS SHORT, BUT BIT BY BIT MY STRENGTH
SEEMED TO REVIVE, AND I GOT UP AT LENGTH.
The doctor shows his mental strength and presence of mind by quickly moving out. While walking, they stumbled over something on their way. Then he realized that it was the head of a man who was crushed to death under a gate and begged for messy "Excuse me, please excuse me" (showing the doctor's generous nature).
The doctor then goes on to give a picture of the whole situation. The couple saw a house before them that 'tilted, swayed, toppled, and crashed'. The fire erupted in the dust and was spreading fast by the wind. They realized that they must go to the hospital as they needed aid. The doctor also wanted to help his stuff, but then he wondered how he could do good to others when he himself was injured. His legs could not take it anymore, and he sat down on the ground. He felt very thirsty, but he could not find any water to drink. He was panting, but he gained some strength "bit by bit," and finally he got up and walked towards the hospital.
LINE: 36 - 43
I WAS STILL NAKED, BUT I FELT NO SHAME.
THIA THOUGHT DISTURBED ME SOMEWHAT, TILL I CAME
UPON A SOLDIER, STANDING SILENTLY,
WHO GAVE THE TOWEL ROUND HIS NECK TO ME
MY LEGS, STIFF WITH DRIED BLOOD, REBELLED. I SAID
TO YECKO-SAN SHE MUST GO ON AHEAD.
SHE DID NOT WISH TO, BUT IN OUR DISTRESS
WHAT CHOICE HAD WE? A DREADFUL LONELINESS
The doctor then tells us that he was naked but felt no shame at his state, though somewhat disturbed at the thought. Then a soldier on the way gave him a towel, but his legs were so injured, stiff with dried blood' that he could not walk any more. He told his wife to go alone, but they had no other choice in such a distressed condition. So finally she went—a dreadful loneliness.
LINE: 44 - 48;
CAME OVER TO ME WHEN SHE HAD GONE. MY MIND
RAN AT HIGH SPEED, MY BLOOD CREPT BEHIND.
I SAW THE SHADOWY FORMS OF PEOPLE, SOME
WERE GHOSTS, SOME SCARECROWS, ALL WERE WIRELESS DUMB -
ARMS STRETCHED STRAIGHT OUT, SHOULDER TO DANGLING HAND;
The doctor says his mind was working, running at a high speed, but his body could not cope with such fatal injuries. He saw shadow-like appearances of people; some looked like ghosts and some like scarecrows (metaphors), but everybody was silent and numb. Some of the survivors were walking with their arms hanging loose from their bodies.
LINE: 49 - 61;
IT TOOK SOME TIE FOR MR TO UNDERSTAND
THE FRICTION ON THEIR BURN CAUSED SO MUCH PAIN
THEY FEARED TO CHAFE FLESH AGAINST FLESH AGAIN.
THOSE WHO COULD, SHUFFLED IN A BLANK PARADE
TOWARDS THE HOSPITAL. I SAW, DISMAYED,
A WOMAN WITHA CHILD STAND IN MY PATH -
BOTH NAKED. HAD THEY COME BACK FROM THE BATH?
I TURNED MY GAZE, BUT WAS AT A LOSS
THAT SHE SHOULD STAND THUS, TILL I CAME ACROSS
A NAKED MAN - AND NOW THE THOUGHT AROSE
THAT SOME STRANGE THING HAD STRIPPED US OF OUR CLOTHES.
THE FACE OF AN OLD WOMAN ON THE GROUND
WAS MARRED WITH SUFFERING, BUT SHE MADE NO SOUND.
It took some time for the doctor to understand what had happened. He was thinking about the burn and the pain of the people. People who could join the parade (irony: not a happy parade) to the hospital walking naked as if it were a naked parade appear to think that their burns would become sour by rubbing against each other.
The doctor saw in his way a woman and her child, both naked. He wondered whether they had come back right from the bath, then he turned from her. The doctor realized that something strange had happened that had burned down people's clothes. Only when he saw another naked man on the way did he also come across an old woman who was lying on the ground with her face distraught with pain but was walking silently (no sound).
LINE: 62 - 63;
SILENCE WAS COMMON TO US ALL. I HEARD
NO CRIES OF ANGUISH, OR A SINGLE WORD.
Silence prevailed all around, and it was the common thing for all of the men and women present. The doctor could hear neither a word nor a cry of pain. They are all shocked into silence.
This symbolizes that the powerful always dominate over the weak. The strong suppress the weaker and make him keep silent; silence shows that they are passively accepting whatever is happening to them (anger is a sign of non-acceptance of wrong doing)
ADDITIONAL & IMPORTANT QUESTIONS-
I SAW SHADOWY OF PEOPLE.......
IT TOOK SOME TIME TO UNDERSTAND
1. What took time for the speaker to understand? What conclusion did he come to?
The speaker spent a while processing the fact that those dark figures of people once got burned so badly that they feared rubbing flesh against flesh.
Therefore, the speaker realized that these people, who were like scary phantoms and scarecrows, were actually being burned themselves, and their silence projected the shared struggle and anguish.
2. A little later the speaker says, "I TURNED MY GAZE, BUT WAS AT LOSS" what did he turned his gaze from? What does he mean by "was at loss"? About what? What truth dawned on him ultimately? Wen?
The speaker looked away after seeing a woman with a child standing before him naked.
He did not understand why she would stand her ground until he saw a naked man too. “At a loss” means confused or bewildered.
Finally, he understood one thing: some queer people had removed their clothes.
3. How hass the speaker describes his own condition earlier in the poem? Mention the adjectives he uses to describe his wife?
The speaker describes his own condition earlier in the poem as "half - clad" and mentions his injured thigh, bleeding from right side, and torn cheek.
"SPRAWLING HALF-CLAD, I GAZED OUT AT THE FORM"
He describes his wife using adjectives such as "pale", blood-stained" and "frightened".
"PALE, BLOODSTAINED, FRIGHTENED, YECKO-SAN EMERGED"
4. What thought came instinctively to the speaker after meeting his wife? How far was it practical?
After meeting his wife for the first time, the thought that came to instinctively to the speaker was that they need to get out quickly.
"LET'S GET OUT QUICKLY.' STUMBLING TO THE STREET"
However, this thought proves itself impracticable given their situation of distress.
5. Complete the following lines and comment on the significance my legs gave way......and I got up at length.
The complete lines are: "MY LEGS GAVE WAY. I SAT DOWN ON THE GROUND. THIRST SEIZED ME, BUT NO WATER COULD BE FOUND. MY BREATH WAS SHORT, BUT BIT BY BIT MY STRENGTH SEEMED TO REVIVE, AND I GOT UP AT LENGTH."
These lines signify that how in a moment of crisis, he felt weak and sat down on the ground. He was thirsty but there was no water to drink. However as time passes he started feeling better and eventually gained some strength bit by bit and finally he got up. It's like he faced tough situations, felt really powerless but he gradually regained his strength, showing determination to overcome From difficulties.
THEME OF THE POEM:
1. Survival And Resilience:
Survival and resilience are two key themes in the poem as the speaker narrates through an experience of a tumultuous and catastrophic event.
The speaker manages to move to overcome difficulties, overcome physical obstacles or emotional aversions, and eventually rise again. For instance, when he talks about how his legs gave up and he was sitting on the ground, then rising back up, it represents both a physical and emotional struggle. “MY LEGS GAVE WAY... AND I GOT UP AT LENGTH” exhibits the ability to overcome difficulties and stand firm.
This theme underlines humanity’s capacity for endurance, adaptability, and fortitude even when faced with insurmountable problems.
2. Loss and Vulnerability:
The speaker’s half-nakedness, injury, and view of destruction imply that he or she is undergoing loss and vulnerability. Physical and emotional exposure only emphasize the fact that life is not predictable.
3. Shared Human Experience:
In this poem, people are stripped of their clothes and identities for a common battle. The silence shared by victims of this kind indicates a common human condition in adversity.
MESSAGE TO READERS:
The poet is describing a chaotic and painful event, thus showing that people are vulnerable during dangerous times. Being naked means being exposed to reality without an identity. Silence indicates that there is so much physical weakness or pain that they can't even speak up. Therefore, amidst ruin, individuals realize themselves as essentially naked yet mute people who look for assistance from others silently in their own endeavor for survival.
LITERARY DEVICES / FIGURES OF SPEECH:
IMAGERY:
By using vivid language with details that paint a picture of what happened after a disaster with all its chaos around him, the poet provides an image of events’ disarray. He shows how worlds have collapsed while bodies lie twisted before revealing their nakedness.
FLASHBACK:
The poem shows a sequence of occasions, using flashbacks to represent the confusion and disorientation that the speaker has gone through.
SYMBOLISM:
Nakedness symbolizes exposure and loss of self-identity in the face of catastrophe in this poem. For instance, “I remained naked, yet I didn’t feel any guilt.”
METAPHOR:
The use of such terms as “ghosts” and “scarecrows” for people brings out the eerie atmosphere after a disaster.
IRONY:
In its title, “The Morning” appears to suggest peace and beauty at first sight, but it unfolds into a chaotic, disturbing experience, which is an ironic contrast.
ALLITERATION:
A poem with alliteration uses repetition of consonant sounds, like in'sprawling half-clad', which gives it rhythm and makes it flow better.
INTENTION OF THE WRITER OF THE POEM:
The reason why Vikram Seth may have written this poem could be to show a glimpse of the intense emotions felt in times of disaster. This poem communicates the pandemonium, fragility, and common suffering of humanity through vivid images and reflections.
The removal of individuality, muteness, and survival struggle can represent any universal human experience once faced with an unexpected setback. Therefore, empathy, compassion, and meditations about humanity are perhaps, this is what the poet wants his readers to feel when they go through his poem during such times.
FOR THE READER:
Please share your thoughts on Vikram Seth’s poem by leaving comments below. What were your feelings after reading it?
Can you relate to the themes of survival instinct as well as resilience? Just write down anything that comes into your head.Feel free to express your views on the poem or any personal connection you find in the poem.Your reflection can contribute to a richer understanding of our work.
FAQs
what is the intention of the writer behind writing this poem:
The reason why Vikram Seth may have written this poem could be to show a glimpse of the intense emotions felt in times of disaster. This poem communicates the pandemonium, fragility, and common suffering of humanity through vivid images and reflections. The removal of individuality, muteness, and survival struggle can represent any universal human experience once faced with an unexpected setback. Therefore, empathy, compassion, and meditations about humanity are perhaps, this is what the poet wants his readers to feel when they go through his poem during such times
what is the literary devices / figures of speech used in the poem?:
METAPHOR: The use of such terms as “ghosts” and “scarecrows” for people brings out the eerie atmosphere after a disaster. IRONY: In its title, “The Morning” appears to suggest peace and beauty at first sight, but it unfolds into a chaotic, disturbing experience, which is an ironic contrast. Read more...
Theme of the poem.
1. Survival And Resilience: Survival and resilience are two key themes in the poem as the speaker narrates through an experience of a tumultuous and catastrophic event. The speaker manages to move to overcome difficulties, overcome physical obstacles or emotional aversions, and eventually rise again. For instance, when he talks about how his legs gave up and he was sitting on the ground, then rising back up, it represents both a physical and emotional struggle. “MY LEGS GAVE WAY... AND I GOT UP AT LENGTH” exhibits the ability to overcome difficulties and stand firm. This theme underlines humanity’s capacity for endurance, adaptability, and fortitude even when faced with insurmountable problems. Read more....
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