In Flanders Fields Essay

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The vision of war is presented in several different ways through the three poems. John McCrae’s In Flanders Fields, gives a voice to the dead, and presents a different type of patriotism to encourage men to fight in the war: guilt. The purpose of continued fighting that it presents is to avenge the deaths of all of the soldiers who have already died. If, in the nation of France, the French don’t win, then all the already deaths would be for nothing. The alive have a responsibility, a duty, to more than something than just their country. The dead souls tell those alive to “take up our quarrel with the foe … we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high,” and if you don’t succeed, “we (the dead souls) shall not sleep, though poppies grow in …show more content…

He focuses on the horrid reality of the war, especially the physical and mental fatigue, the gas-shells, and the reality of death on a frequent basis. The unrestricted imagery and language of the poem, including “if you could hear, at every jolt, the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs” and “coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge till on the haunting flares we turned our backs” (Dulce et Decorum Est) gives the reader a small opportunity to think about life in war, especially trench warfare in total war time. The characteristics of war include brutal, harsh, ruthless, and unsparing. The purpose of war presented in this poem is to try to survive longer than the enemy. This poem shows how this war has changed into a war of attrition, and whoever can outlive the enemy’s weapons and their own starvation and fatigue, will become victorious. The tone is both furious and revealing with hope of insight. This poem would be a complete shock to the public, because during this time, the government restricted and censored most information about the reality of war. This poem challenges the idea that war is glorious and by fighting for your nation you are helping your nation in the best way possible, which how most saw the war before 1914. Also, there was new weaponry utilized in this war, and the gas-shells are exemplified in this poem. When dropped on soldiers so weary as to not hearing

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