It is estimated that there were 87,500,000 war, military and civilian, deaths in the last century. Writers Stephen Crane, Wilfred Owen, Tim O’Brien, and Kevin Powers have all participated in wars of the last hundred years, and they have written about their experiences in various ways. Wilfred Owen fought in World War I, Stephen Crane was a war reporter in Cuba, Tim O’Brien fought in the Vietnam War, and Kevin Powers fought in the War on Terror in Iraq. Even though these writers fought in different wars, they all have something in common; ………...These writers use imagery, irony, and structure to protest war. Firstly, Crane uses imagery in “War is Kind” to effectively protest war. Stanza five states “Mother whose heart hung humble as a button on the bright splendid shroud of your son, Do not weep. War is kind”(Crane). This quotation displays a mother’s grief over her son’s death by describing the way she feels through…………Similarly, Owen uses imagery to protest war in “Dulce et Decorum Est”. Stanza three states “His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs”(Owen). This quotation demonstrates how awful choking to death on poison gas was, and how seeing their comrade die so brutally affected the soldiers. Poison gas was used often in World War I, and many soldiers died this way. Owen uses the …show more content…
In “The Things They Carried,” it states “The poncho weighed almost 2 pounds, but it was worth every ounce… when Ted Lavender was shot, they used his poncho to wrap him up, then to carry him across the paddy, then to lift him into the chopper that took him away”(O’Brien). O’Brien uses repetition and straight to the point writing to convey the struggles of war. The description of Ted Lavender being killed and taken away in a helicopter is unfeeling and devoid of any grief, demonstrating how desensitized the soldiers have become due to
O’Brien, Tim. “How To Tell a True War Story.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2003. p. 420-429.
One of the most striking events of the story is the death of Ted Lavender. O’Brien mentions Lavenders death multiple times throughout the story. He uses the repetition of Lavenders death as a symbol of how the soldiers constantly carried the weight of the event within themselves. It particularly haunts Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, who feels personally responsible for what happened. When describing how Cross felt O’Brien writes,” ...this was something he would have to carry like a stone
Tim O’Brien states in his novel The Things They Carried, “The truths are contradictory. It can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty. For all its horror, you can’t help but gape at the awful majesty of combat” (77). This profound statement captures not only his perspective of war from his experience in Vietnam but a collective truth about war across the ages. It is not called the art of combat without reason: this truth transcends time and can be found in the art produced and poetry written during the years of World War I. George Trakl creates beautiful images of the war in his poem “Grodek” but juxtaposes them with the harsh realities of war. Paul Nash, a World War I artist, invokes similar images in his paintings We are Making a New World and The Ypres Salient at Night. Guilaume Apollinaire’s writes about the beautiful atrocity that is war in his poem “Gala.”
Julianna Claire, an award winning poet once said, “War makes men act like fools, and makes fools pretend to be brave.” War is a very difficult and dangerous game. There must be a just cause to fight for, supporters on either side of the war, and clear plan on what the war ought to look like. Though, as much as countries plan their strategies and perfect their tactics, war never seems to go how people think it should. War creates heartache, makes countries question their governments, and changes the lives of the soldiers who fight in them. One such story that address the damages of war, is Ambush, by Tim O’Brien (1946). In this short story, Tim O’Brien tells a story of a young man fighting in Vietnam who kills a member of the Vietnam army. Robin Silbergleid, a neurosurgeon in Seattle, Washington, who minored in
...c, and Patty Campbell. War Is…Soldiers, Survivors, and Storytellers Talk About War. Cambridge: Candlewick, 2008. Print.
Vivid imagery is one way with which writers protest war. Crane uses imagery to glorify, and shortly thereafter demean and undercut war, through the use of imagery, by placing positive and negative images of war close to eachother. “Blazing flag of the regiment,” and “the great battle God,” are placed before “A field where a thousand corpses lie.” (A) These lines’ purposes are to put images into the reader’s head, of how great war may appear, and then displaying that there are too many casualties involved with it. In Dulce Et Decorum Est, a man is described dyin...
War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, written by the talented author Chris Hedges, gives us provoking thoughts that are somewhat painful to read but at the same time are quite personal confessions. Chris Hedges, a talented journalist to say the least, brings nearly 15 years of being a foreign correspondent to this book and subjectively concludes how all of his world experiences tie together. Throughout his book, he unifies themes present in all wars he experienced first hand. The most important themes I was able to draw from this book were, war skews reality, dominates culture, seduces society with its heroic attributes, distorts memory, and supports a cause, and allures us by a constant battle between death and love.
The difficult association between the occurrence of war and storytelling is told through the eyes of Tim O’Brien; he explains that a true war story has a supreme adherence to offensiveness that provides a sense of pride and courage commonly found in storytelling. “The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and im...
How Wilfred Owen Uses Language and Imagery in His Poetry to Communicate his Attitudes of War
In the first vignette, "The Things They Carried", O'Brien describes the tone and hardship the soldiers endured, together. O'Brien juxtaposes how the tangible items the soldiers carry, such as, "a flak jacket which weighed 6.7 pounds", and "a large compress bandage" (O'Brien 3), but the soldiers often, "carried each other, the wounded or the weak," (O'Brien 14). The soldiers relied on each other for emotional and physical support, just as everyday people depend upon their friends for support. The weight in responsibility far outweighed the weight in supplies they carried. These soldiers were between the ages of eight-teen and nine-teen, and relied on one another for emotional support; many soldiers such as Ted Lavender who, “carried 6 or 7 ounces of premium dope” (O’Brien 3) or Azar who, “strapped the puppy to a Claymore antipersonnel mine and squeezed the firing device” (O’Brien 35), could not handle the hardships of the barbaric nature of the war. Even after the war, the veterans continued their co-dependence on one another, by the continuance of communication. After the war
The three narratives “Home Soil” by Irene Zabytko, “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl, and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen all have the same feelings of war and memory, although not everyone experiences the same war. Zabytko, Weigl, and Owen used shifting beats, dramatic descriptions, and intense, painful images, to convince us that the horror of war far outweighs the devoted awareness of those who fantasize war and the memories that support it.
O’Brien, Tim. “How To Tell a True War Story.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2003. p. 420-429.
The theme of emotional weight and its effect on soldiers in the Vietnam conflict is one that O'Brien tackles. By placing physical items next to intangible things like emotions in a list format, O'Brien forces his reader to acknowledge the weight and effect of both of these things on the person who carries them. Lt. Jimmy Cross' inner fear that he was the cause of Ted Lavender's death was symbolized by Martha's pebble and letters. He felt that when he burned the pictures he was conquering his fear, even though no one can simply burn their emotions away. To a certain extent, these men are defined by the things that they carry, "And for all the ambiguities of Vietnam, all the mysteries and unknowns, there was at least the single abiding certainty that they would never be at a loss for things to carry," (O'Brien, 16).
...e see a young boy being taught how to use weapons. In “Exposure”, Owen depicts a group of soldiers freezing to death at war, even though they aren’t in the midst of fighting. Lastly, in “Dulce Et Decorum Est” we read about a soldiers who struggles to get his mask on during a gas attack (when the enemy releases a gas deadly upon inhale). Owen describes the soldiers slow death in detail. Not only do these images provide the reader with first hand accounts of war, but they also show Owen’s feelings towards the war. All of these images that are glued into his head will be there forever, which is why he incorporates these realities in his poems, so that everyone can realize that war is nothing more than a inhumane act of terror.
Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” makes the reader acutely aware of the impact of war. The speaker’s experiences with war are vivid and terrible. Through the themes of the poem, his language choices, and contrasting the pleasant title preceding the disturbing content of the poem, he brings attention to his views on war while during the midst of one himself. Owen uses symbolism in form and language to illustrate the horrors the speaker and his comrades go through; and the way he describes the soldiers, as though they are distorted and damaged, parallels how the speaker’s mind is violated and haunted by war.