Rainbow Death Analysis

Point of View
Statement: The point of view taken in this poem is from Hubert Wilson himself reflecting back on the Vietnam War. Hubert Wilson expresses himself very forcefully in this poem and shows his rage to how America made decisions in the Vietnam War.
Evidence: 'Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn'
Elaboration: The evidence suggests to us that Hubert was very furious with his country when it launched the operation which killed many innocents in Vietnam. The word 'omnipotent' is defined as an al-mighty person and in this case, America. Hubert thinks that America did not care for the Vietnamese and as they disregarded the people who were already mourning for the dead. He did not think that America was all that powerful as it did not realise that so many were suffering.

Statement: Hubert Wilson also expressed his condolences for the people suffering from the Agent Orange operation.
Evidence: 'Toll on the innocent and unborn' , 'Generations untold WILL pay'
Elaboration:Hubert mentioned in his poem the different effects of the disease and uses striking phrases to start the readers thinking and reflecting whether what America had done was morally right. Through the evidences, we can see that Hubert cared a lot for the innocents who were suffering and also realised that more wwould be affected as these diseases may be passed down from the mother to the foetus. This shows that Hubert was very grieved that the innocent lives in Vietnam are going to suffer such a fate, some of them are just infants and they are already born with diseases and disfunctions.

Situation and Setting
Statement: This poem is probably written during the post Vietnam War period.
Evidence: 'agent orange' , 'America did not foresee'
Elaboration: The first evidence 'agent orange' is a major incident which took place during the Vietnam War and this tells us that this poem is going to revolve around the incidents in the Vietnam War. The second evidence is phrased in a manner of reflection which shows that the persona is actually recounting on his past experiences in the Vietnam War and so we can infer that this poem should have been written after the war.

Statement: The situation at hand is probably the after effects of the war and particularly how the civilians in Vietnam were affected by the Agent Orange operation.
Evidence: 'Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead'
Elaboration: The evidence creates an imagery of the many people in Vietnam having different illnesses and medical problems as they were exposed to the chemicals in the Agent Orange operation. The different symptoms of this illness clearly shows us that the Agent Orange operation was too much for Vietnam and now that country will face many problems to contain the disease and ensure that the ecosystems are still kept safe.

Language and Diction
Statement: Hubert showed to us that there were many casualties of this war through the use of metaphors.
Evidence: 'Death potpourri'
Elaboration: The word 'potpourri' is defined as a collection containing a variety of sorts of things which is used as a metaphor, refers=ring to the victims of the Vietnam War. This evidence shows us that people from all walks of life in Vietnam were dying and this clearly highlights to us the severity of the death toll in Vietnam.

Statement: Hubert also carefully used different words to express his feelings in this poem through diction.
Evidence:'omnipotent' , 'nefariously'
Elaboration: Hubert used omniptent to describe how America was al-mighty and all but his tone was slightly sarcastic as deeper down, he was actually very angry over America's negligence which had led to so many lives being lost. Hubert also used nefariouly to describe that America was being led atrociouly astray such that it probably did not understand what matters most but could only be bent on winning the war at the expense of the many innocent Vietnamese lives.

Personal Response
I think that after this extensive research and analysis of this poem, I have found out lots more about the Vietnam war and understood what the different colours being brought up in the poem actually mean. I feel that cruelty of the American force was greatly displayed in the poem as many lives were lost when America launched the Agent Orange operation. Ths poem brings out the cruelty of war as countries would not care about the people but would only focus on their target --- to win the war.