" An underlying theme of "The Terrorist, He Watches" is the importance of timing in general. The people who happened to leave the bar before 1:20 have good timing. Those who happened to be inside were in the wrong place at the wrong time. "Some will have time to get in, / Some to get out." The terrorist cares little for the suffering he inflicts. He keeps time as if he were a robot.
Szymborska's poem is disturbing not because it describes a bloody scene during the aftermath of a terrorist attack or because it describes the mind of a killer. On the contrary, the poem is disturbing for what it omits: emotion. Suggesting that terrorists must emotionally detach themselves to carry out their mission, Szymborska deliberately leaves out any affective content in "The Terrorist, He Watches." As the title suggest, the terrorist merely watches. Even the act of setting the bomb takes little out of him. All he needs to do is plant the bomb and wait. The terrorist does not need to confront anyone nor fight face-to-face. Terrorism is intensely impersonal even as it is insanely inhuman. The...
If he were courageous he might be proactive, assertive in expressing his feelings. Terrorism enables him to avoid human contact or confrontation. Setting off a bomb in a public place allows the terrorist to avoid taking responsibility for the lives he takes. The terrorist only describes people with superficial terms: what they are wearing or what their hair looks like. His superficial description of human beings parallels his impersonal, inhuman, and cowardly disposition. When he finally states, "Should be any moment now. / Not yet. / Yes, this is it," the terrorist's mind seems totally numb. A series of "what if" questions easily arise during Szymborska's poem: what if the terrorist bumped into the woman with the yellow jacket and looked into her eyes? What if he watched and saw one of his friends, or his mother,…
