The Underpainter, written by Jane Urquhart, is a story that explores different vast themes each exploring a particular and unique perspective. One of them is the theme of the war. World War I, also known as The Great War, showed no mercy in the early 1900s when it brutally took the lives of over 9 million people in Europe, Asia and North America. It is still marked as one of the most historical turning points that mankind ever witnessed. Urquhart’s novel shows (a) how the war had an important role in the twists and turns of the plots, (b) how its events and effects helped in the description of the different situations at the time and most importantly (c) how there was no good outcome of the war. To begin with, some major events in the Underpainter wouldn’t have happened if the war hadn’t taken place at that time. The author only mentioned the actions of the war a few times and left it up to the reader to relate that topic to the course of the story. Austin himself was not associated with the war except through George Kearns, who he met during his stay in Davenport, and George’s partner, Augusta, a nurse who served in France and later came to live with George in the China Hall. In fact, George and Augusta’s involvement in the war is what brought them together. Before that, George had to be deployed to battle and was away from his home for a long time. His deployment obligated him to be far from his parents while they were suffering from influenza. Another important event in the story due to the war was George’s major injury. It affected his daily life deeply and took over a big part of his behavior. As for Augusta, her horrifying war experience led to her morphine addiction which she hoped would help her recover from her trauma. Wh... ... middle of paper ... ... to set the frame of this dark reminder and relate to the outcomes of all wars in general, not just WWI. Augusta’s traumatic memories of the battles also helped promote the awfulness of the war, especially when she was suffering from the horrible flashbacks of wounded victims and injured soldiers. As for her relationship with George, it was uneasy and never really improved, most probably because of the intense situation around them that scarred them both to life. In addition George pointed out, on an artistic level, another loss caused by the war. He mourns the fact that before the war there were two worlds of art, the world of high art and the world of artistry but after the war, there is only one world of art which was Austin’s. Not only did The Great War manipulate the course of the story, but its fatal and disastrous results were extremely hard to overcome from.
Zieger, Robert H. (2000). America’s Great War: World War I and the American Experience. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.
As he immerses his audience into combat with the soldiers, Shaara demonstrates the more emotional aspects of war by highlighting the personal lives of the men fighting. For example, when Shaara reveals the pasts of James Longstreet and Lewis Armistead’s, I started to picture them as the men that they were and not as soldiers out for blood. After suffering a devastating loss of three of his children to fever, Longstreet is tossed into battle. In Armistead’s case, he not only suffered the loss of his wife, but also of a friend fighting on the Union side, General Winfield Scott Hancock. Shaara saves his readers a front row seat to the inner turmoil of General Chamberlain regarding his hindering duty as a soldier clashes with his duty to family as he strived to serve the Union as well as protec...
Robert Ross is a sensitive, private boy; last person you would expect to sign up to fight in World War One. In The Wars by Timothy Findley, symbols are used in conjunction with Ross’ story to cause readers to reflect on symbols in their own lives, and to allow then to dive deeper into the world of an innocent boy who is placed into a cruel war. The various symbols in The Wars provide for a graphic and reflective reading experience by emphasizing Robert’s connection with nature, his past, and his experiences during the war.
Sophia's war is about a young girl living in the revolutionary times. Her dad was a printer at a shop ran by a man named Mr. Gaine. Her mother is a very typical one for the time. She does not work or make any money for the family, so the father is the one who is keeping a roof over the family's head. Her brother, William, is a very patriotic person. He taught Sophia how to read, write and taught her all about america and his love for it. They live in New York. An area that at the time was being ran by red coats, or loyalists. Anyone rebellious figure living in that area, would have to hid. However William went off to fight for america and freedom. He was not seen for quite some time. One day her family is forced to leave because there was rumors of a fleet of red coats ransacking people home for any evidence of patriotism. Having gathered all of their belongings they fled the house in a bee line. After hiding overnight, Sophia's father told her mother and her that they needed to go back by themselves. That the red coats would not hurt a woman and child. One the way back home Sophia witnessed the hanging of Nathan Hale, a patriot who greatly inspired the american dream. This hanging greatly affected Sophia, and her beliefs in america.
about the war and his lack of place in his old society. The war becomes
Everyone knows what war is. It's a nation taking all of its men, resources, weapons and most of its money and bearing all malignantly towards another nation. War is about death, destruction, disease, loss, pain, suffering and hate. I often think to myself why grown and intelligent individuals cannot resolve matters any better than to take up arms and crawl around, wrestle and fight like animals. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque puts all of these aspects of war into a vivid story which tells the horrors of World War 1 through a soldier's eyes. The idea that he conveys most throughout this book is the idea of destruction, the destruction of bodies, minds and innocence.
Erich Maria Remarque's classic war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, deals with the many ways in which World War I affected people's lives, both the lives of soldiers on the front lines and the lives of people on the homefront. One of the most profound effects the war had was the way it made the soldiers see human life. Constant killing and death became a part of a soldier's daily life, and soldiers fighting on all sides of the war became accustomed to it. The atrocities and frequent deaths that the soldiers dealt with desensitized them to the reality of the vast quantities of people dying daily. The title character of the novel, Paul Bäumer, and his friends experience the devaluation of human life firsthand, and from these experiences they become stronger and learn to live as if every day were their last.
The third idea that the author uses to un-romanticize the beauty or glory of war is that a war can and will ruin a country’s economy. In World War I, life was unbearable for the soldiers serving in the war, but the citizens suffered too. Citizens had to cut down on their supply of food, fabric, and many other needs to support the troops. Paul Baumer and his mother had a conversation regarding the stock of food during the war. Paul then realized that soldiers were not the only ones not having an abundant supply of food, but that his family and all the other families out there were being tormented as well. ““It is pretty bad for food [for civilians] here?” [Paul] inquires. “Yes, there is not much [anymore].”” (Remarque 160) Not only does war affect negatively on soldiers and the government, but it affects the residents of that country too.
World War One was a massive event. It affected millions of people from all walks of life, and inspired countless written pieces. Nevertheless, without being there, it is impossible to truly be able to tell what the war is like. Therefore the use of setting is very important in giving the reader an idea of the circumstance. This is not to say that everyone is in agreement over how the war should be displayed. Quite one the contrary, the two Poems “In Flanders Fields” and “Dulce et Decorum Est” use their settings to create two very contrasting images of human conflict.
War can be as damaging to the human body as it is to the mind. In Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, this idea that war causes psychological disorders is represented throughout the book through the main character, Paul Baumer. This book follows the lives of young soldiers in World War I. Together, these men create powerful bonds. They go through terrifying experiences that continue to strengthen their bonds, but also destroy their mental state. Through Paul’s eyes, Remarque shows the devastation that war has on the mind.
Throughout their lives, people must deal with the horrific and violent side of humanity. The side of humanity is shown through the act of war. This is shown in Erich Remarque’s novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front”. War is by far the most horrible thing that the human race has to go through. The participants in the war suffer irreversible damage by the atrocities they witness and the things they go through.
Now Howell uses George's view on war, his family history and even his death to symbolize realism. From the beginning George sees war as a negative thing that can bring so much pain and suffering contrary to Editha's views. His family had a personal experience with war, having his father lose his arm at war shaped his family's view on war influencing George. His mother's straight forward words about girls that give up their loved ones thinking they will come back alive and unaltered, only expecting to "kill someone else- kill the sons of those miserable mothers and husbands of those girls.
World War I had a great effect on the lives of Paul Baumer and the young men of his generation. These boys’ lives were dramatically changed by the war, and “even though they may have escaped its shells, [they] were destroyed by the war” (preface). In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Baumer and the rest of his generation feel separated from the other men, lose their innocence, and experience comradeship as a result of the war.
Thousands of American were killed because of that war. There were many issues and problems regarding the Vietnam war. Soldiers were dying without even seeing their families for the last time. In addition, many of them were pretty young. They were facing one of the most aggressive injuries. For example, Martha said, “There’s one boy here who’s just had his legs and arm blown off--this morning--just turned eighteen” (Lauro 67). Also, many nurses were exposed to the most painful things such as seeing young soldiers that have even lived much of their life dying because of something called war. For instance the conversation between Sissy and the G.I. who asked here to “remember him” (67). Therefore, we can conclude that the theme of this play is that many young men were losing their lives at early ages because of that war. Thus, this was getting their families and even the nurses who worked with them to continue their lives thinking of the tragedy that the faced during the
Since its beginning, World War I has been a topic of major controversy. Not only were millions of lives lost, but the war led to new laws against specific types of unethical warfare. During the war, Siegfried Sassoon was one of many that wrote with hopes to bring an end to the entire conflict. In his poem “’They,’” Sassoon uses satire to effectively express his frustrations with the aimless deaths in the war.