THE CLOWN PUNK
Character and Voice
Armitage talks about a homeless man he used to see around town. On one memorable occasion the homelessman washed Armitage's windscreen and in that moment they looked into each other's eyes and shared something. What marks this character out as special is that the Clown Punk is an outsider in every sense. First of all and perhaps most obviously he is a homeless person, who unfortunately are very much marginalised and dispossessed in our contemporary society. They live amongst the filth and detritus of society simply trying to survive. They are largely ignored and for the most people will go out of their way to avoid homeless people and in some cases may even feel repulsed and afraid of them, like the backseat children in the poem. In addition to this, Armitage's Clown Punk looks particualrly intimidating with his high punk tattoos and sunken cheeks. His tattoos seem to speak of a different stage in the man's life, perhaps when he was younger.
Armitage was very much a child of the 1970s and 80s when the punk rock movement was at its vibrant best. Punk stood for rebellion in the face of authority, a desire to be free of the suffocating rules of the establishment and of a latent anger at unemployment rigid conservatism. In this sense we might assume that the Clown Punk was a rebel in his past. His 'high punk' tattoos are relics of that past and also imply that the Clown Punk was a dedicated punk and fully embraced the ideas and ethos of the movement. The fact that the speaker calls him the 'Clown Punk' seems derogatory, as if the man is a joke, but we might do well to remember that there is something disturbingly and ironically sad about clowns - the painted smiles, the ragged clothes. In fact there is a long tradition of association between clowns and the homeless. Charlie Chaplain's most famous character is a homeless person, or tramp as they are sometimes known since they have to 'tramp' about from place to place. Chaplain played his character as a clown and we all laughed, but not without seeing the tragedy of the tramp's life.
The figure of the homeless person is also a figure of fear for another very important reason - the fear of becoming homeless yourself. We live in a world where money talks, but lose your job, fall behind on your bills and start to slip down that slide and it is terrifying how quickly you can find yourself in trouble. It's sobering to think that every homeless person sleeping on the street tonight started out more or less the same as everyone else save some series of events in their life that saw them end up out of doors and sleeping rough. Perhaps this is why the speaker in the poem wants his children to take a moment to think about the Clown Punk and remember that life can be very hard and cruel. When the speaker sees the Clown Punk he might wonder, even if just for a second, had his life taken a different route it would be him washing the windscreen and the Clown Punk driving his children home.
What is particualrly interesting is that the speaker has given the homeless man a nickname, which means that he must have seen him before at some point.
Gutter Punk
Armitage talks about a homeless man he used to see around town. On one memorable occasion the homelessman washed Armitage's windscreen and in that moment they looked into each other's eyes and shared something. What marks this character out as special is that the Clown Punk is an outsider in every sense. First of all and perhaps most obviously he is a homeless person, who unfortunately are very much marginalised and dispossessed in our contemporary society. They live amongst the filth and detritus of society simply trying to survive. They are largely ignored and for the most people will go out of their way to avoid homeless people and in some cases may even feel repulsed and afraid of them, like the backseat children in the poem. In addition to this, Armitage's Clown Punk looks particualrly intimidating with his high punk tattoos and sunken cheeks. His tattoos seem to speak of a different stage in the man's life, perhaps when he was younger.
Armitage was very much a child of the 1970s and 80s when the punk rock movement was at its vibrant best. Punk stood for rebellion in the face of authority, a desire to be free of the suffocating rules of the establishment and of a latent anger at unemployment rigid conservatism. In this sense we might assume that the Clown Punk was a rebel in his past. His 'high punk' tattoos are relics of that past and also imply that the Clown Punk was a dedicated punk and fully embraced the ideas and ethos of the movement. The fact that the speaker calls him the 'Clown Punk' seems derogatory, as if the man is a joke, but we might do well to remember that there is something disturbingly and ironically sad about clowns - the painted smiles, the ragged clothes. In fact there is a long tradition of association between clowns and the homeless. Charlie Chaplain's most famous character is a homeless person, or tramp as they are sometimes known since they have to 'tramp' about from place to place. Chaplain played his character as a clown and we all laughed, but not without seeing the tragedy of the tramp's life.
The figure of the homeless person is also a figure of fear for another very important reason - the fear of becoming homeless yourself. We live in a world where money talks, but lose your job, fall behind on your bills and start to slip down that slide and it is terrifying how quickly you can find yourself in trouble. It's sobering to think that every homeless person sleeping on the street tonight started out more or less the same as everyone else save some series of events in their life that saw them end up out of doors and sleeping rough. Perhaps this is why the speaker in the poem wants his children to take a moment to think about the Clown Punk and remember that life can be very hard and cruel. When the speaker sees the Clown Punk he might wonder, even if just for a second, had his life taken a different route it would be him washing the windscreen and the Clown Punk driving his children home.
What is particualrly interesting is that the speaker has given the homeless man a nickname, which means that he must have seen him before at some point.
Gutter Punk
clown_punk_pp.pptx | |
File Size: | 1037 kb |
File Type: | pptx |
Poster
the_clown_punk.doc | |
File Size: | 4245 kb |
File Type: | doc |