Good morning/afternoon teachers and fellow students, I am here today to discuss my knowledge of conflict in the poem “weapons training” by bruce dawe and the movie “Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban”.
The poem “weapons training” is about a group of Australian troops getting ready to go to war trying to stand at attention while their drill instructor is yelling and insulting them trying to earn their respect so that they will succeed in the war that is ahead. There are two types of conflict in the poem, conflict between the drill instructor and troops and conflict between the troops and their enemy. The poem has little punctuation so that it is at a fast pace just like how the instructor would be talking. The poem is not meant to be read softly or in your head but read out loud to show the anger in the instructor’s voice and the speed of which he would be yelling.
The writer has used a lot of poetic techniques to make the poem sound more harsh. PP For example he has used pitter- patter this is known as alliteration which is when same sound is repeated in two words or more PP and also onomatopoeia because pitter- patter is actually what the dandruff would sound like. Pitter-patter would normally be a gentle sound for example the gentle pitter- patter of the rain but in this poem it has been used to scare the troops and to make them listen.
Throughout the poem the drill instructor is insulting the troops and making them feel little and afraid it might seem like he is being rude and harsh but he is actually just putting pressure on them to prepare them for the war that they are going to be in for example he asks one man” why are you looking at me are you queer?” queer being a very harmful insult considering he is surrounded by men which are of course the same gender as him. He also says “too late you nit they’re on you and your tripes are around your neck you’ve copped the bloody lot just like I said and you know what you are? Your dead dead dead. This is where the instructor is insulting them and scaring them so that they will respect him and obey him. PP And dead dead dead is a repetition because the word dead is repeated. It is repeated because the instructor wants to get across to the men how important what they are doing is and how easily they could mess up and die.
There are a lot of sexual references in the poem one of them is where the instructor is yelling at a man saying “it’s not a women’s titt” by saying that he is saying that he is handling his weapon too gently as if it was a women’s breast. And that if he wants any chance of living he needs to be quicker and less gentle in what he is doing.
The poem is also full of racist comments as the drill instructor makes there enemy sound less human because if they are not human then it does not matter if they die so there for it is easier for the Australian troops to kill them. That is why at every opportunity he says something racist about the enemy. For example he calls them “little yellows” saying that they are not of the same skin colour and there for they are not human. Or rotten fish sauce breathe or a group of Charlies which are all very racist comments.
So as you can see the poetic techniques are very important in the creation of conflict in this poem. Another way to represent conflict is in movies; in this particular scene from harry potter and the prisoner of Azkaban Ron has been dragged into a secret passage underneath the womping willow. Harry and Hermione follow him in hope to save him but while they are in there they discover the truth about serious black and Ron’s pet rat.
This scene is a scary dark scene; the colours are very dark and sad create fear and anticipation in the viewers. It is a very mysterious and unpredictable scene.
The music in this scene is very descriptive as it follows the charters actions and feelings and also go’s soft or completely quiet when something important is being said or done. The tempo of the music increases and becomes louder as the anticipation builds up and fear increases. There is also a lot of creaking and loud noises along with the music to give an atmosphere of how old and dark and uncomfortable the room they are in really is.
There are a lot of close up shots where the main focus is on the characters faces this is manly to show their emotions through their facial expressions such as fear, anger, misery and allot of other emotions that they are feeling. There are also allot of body shots showing the sharp movements the characters are making and also their body language to each other.
The characters use harsh harmful words and loud voices to get their messages across to one and other and to show their hatred and emotions.
And in conclusion I have demonstrated how conflict is represented in two different forms through a movie and a poem. Thank you for listening to my speech.

(Movie scene= chapter 24)