MT1.2

When anger is equated with dynamite or an explosive property, the suddenness of anger is highlighted. Anger is something that can just happen or in the case of dynamite it can just go off. Like dynamite, anger can be very powerful. It can also build up. If you keep stacking up sticks of dynamite, after a while you will have something that can hurt a lot of people. The same is true for anger. If you just let your anger build up and you just keep adding to it, after a while that anger will be released and some people may get caught in the middle of it that didn’t even have anything to do with you being angry. I think the dynamite metaphor hides an important thing about anger. That is that anger is not only directed towards those you dislike. Anger can be directed towards those you love like friends and family. The dynamite metaphor, in my opinion, can make that less clear because of the destructive nature of dynamite. That destruction it can cause isn’t something one would often relate to their friends and family.

In Blake’s poem anger is a poison tree, and the anger grows into a poisonous fruit. The plant grows the same way that anger can grow. It can just grow out of nothing, unexpectedly, or it can be nurtured into a perfect thing.

And I watered it in fears,

Night & morning with my tears:

And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

The above stanza is an example of how the anger can be transformed into what a person wants it to be. Anger is a thing that when it is allowed to build up, or if someone purposely tries to add to their anger it can get out of hand. This is true just like it was for the dynamite metaphor. One just must add sorrow, deceit and anything else that hurts them and anger will sprout. The tree metaphor hides the quickness of anger. It does show how anger can just happen. Someone can instantly become angry. It isn’t something that only comes with time. That is the key idea that the tree metaphor hides and the dynamite metaphor shows easily.

I grew angry with my neighbor.

His actions planted the seed of anger inside of me.