War and Conflict Comparative Essay
Anti-war is a broad statement describing any opposition of war, which can range from merely having thoughts opposing it, or attending protests against it. Many people who have these sentiments possess personal relations with a veteran or soldiers, because they are the only ones who understand the damage war creates. In spring 1965, after President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered massive U.S. military intervention and the sustained bombing of North Vietnam, Students for a Democratic Society organized the first national antiwar demonstration in Washington, where as many as 20,000 students attended, beginning the anti-war movement. (Wells). A recent study carried out by the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress
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Throughout “Dulce et Decorum Est,” the speaker describes one of his personal memories from a war. Directly after he recalls the death of his friend, the speaker explains that in all of his dreams, he stands helplessly watching his friends die horrible deaths (15). Therefore, the war that the speaker has gone through has scarred him. He constantly has nightmares about the deaths that he witnessed and is forced to relive them. These nightmares leave him constantly scared, constantly comparing him as an individual. Additionally, at the end of the poem, the speaker states, “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest/ To children ardent for some desperate glory, / The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori.” (25-28). The speaker argues that once a person has fought in a war, they know the truth about how dreadful war is. War leaves the individuals scared, creating a hatred of war. In contrast, in “I Beg You, Brother: Do Not Die,” individual detriments are avoided, and collective detriments that war creates are discussed.
In “I Beg You, Brother: Do Not Die,” the speaker focuses on the intense grief war creates, affecting the collective people in the soldier's life. Throughout “I Beg You, Brother: Do Not Die,” the speaker explains all that will be left behind if her brother dies in war. Near the end of the poem, the speaker begins to speak about the collective grief that death in war has on relatives and acquaintances. She
In one of the greatest war novels All Quiet On the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is about a soldier Paul Bäumer who was enrolled into the army with his classmates where they had to face horrendous obstacles and had to see vivid consternations. wistfully after all Paul went through from watching his comrades die in combat, he had died near the ending of World War 1. Paul was a person who is repulsed by the idea of war. The brutality of war that he had experienced with his companions has caused them to lose faith and have a special hostility to war. Paul would've wanted the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” to show the people who are out of harm's way that war is not what it seems. There are casualties from soldiers choking
The anti-war movement regarded the Vietnam War which began in 1946 when Vietnam wanted to gain its’ independence from French rule. Eventually the U.S involved themselves and went to war against the communists. “The United States entered the war against the communist, but even American military might could not save the South Vietnam government.” (Britannica). United States had given South Vietnam military and food for such a decent amount of time and still had not made any progress throughout the war. The war took place for nearly thirty years with little success.
“Dulce et Decorum Est” shows how one soldiers need to survive indirectly causes another soldiers death. From the very beginning of the poem the reader sees how the war affects the soldiers. Fighting in the war has aged the soldiers, the once young men now “bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags” trudge through the warzone (Owen 1-2). The men, completely drained f...
... horrors of war such as, his parents who still view war as glamorous and idealistic. War takes a heavy toll on soldiers who fight in it and in these dangerous moments anybody would have gone insane. It takes a very special type of soldier to be able to handle both the psychological and physical challenges that a soldier has to face in everyday battle. A soldier such as this must be capable of handling the sight of a mutilated comrade and not immediately chatter to pieces. The author conveys this message in his extreme use of words with negative connotation such as shells, typhus, dysentery, and trenches. In this portion of the novel a great deal of emphasis is placed on the word death which is repeated several times and standing on its own it holds a great deal of negative connotations. Therefore, due to the severity of the situation and the extensive use of words with negative connotations the overall tone of the novel appeared to be very depressing or serious. This selection also demonstrates just how mythical the character of war that many individuals who have not experienced the tragedy of battle believe to be true by illustrating just how appalling and grim war is in reality.
The Poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” attempts to make war seem as repulsive as possible. The author’s goal is to discourage people from joining the war or any future conflicts by shattering the romantic image people have of the fighting. The setting of this poem helps
In contrast, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ gives us the complete opposite. It takes away the lie that describes the war as a place of pleasure and vividness. When in reality it is a...
In doing this, the Antiwar Movement successfully changed the entire public’s perception towards the government and war. Before the Vietnam War and The Draft, many Americans were uneducated and uninterested in the role of government and foreign policy. The Antiwar Movement forced Americans to acknowledge the major mistakes that the United States government was committing through The Draft and the Vietnam War. Through constant protest and public display of American mistakes, such as the Tet Offensive, the Antiwar Movement successfully changed the public opinion on government and influenced future decision making. After the Tet Offensive was publicly displayed, “American public opinion shifted dramatically with fully half the population opposed to escalation” (Barringer 10). While many Americans were dissatisfied with government actions and the Vietnam War, they had no voice to rally behind and remained silent. The Antiwar Movement gave the public the voice it needed and allowed American opinions to be
The two poems have a strongly anti war message in both the victims. of war are the young men who’s lives are wasted. ‘Dulce et decorum Est’ uses the description of a gas attack to show how horrific the attack was. reality of war is. Owen describes the victim as "a sham."
Wilfred Owen is a tired soldier on the front line during World War I. In the first stanza of Dulce Et Decorum Est he describes the men and the condition they are in and through his language shows that the soldiers deplore the conditions. Owen then moves on to tell us how even in their weak human state the soldiers march on, until the enemy fire gas shells at them. This sudden situation causes the soldiers to hurriedly put their gas masks on, but one soldier did not put it on in time. Owen tells us the condition the soldier is in, and how, even in the time to come he could not forget the images that it left him with. In the last stanza he tells the readers that if we had seen what he had seen then we would never encourage the next generation to fight in a war.
Owen as a young soldier held the same romantic view on war as majority of the other naive soldiers who thought that war would be an exciting adventure. The documentary extract illustrates how markedly Owen’s perspective of the war changed, as noted in a letter to his mother while he was still in the front lines: “But extra for me, there is the universal perversion of ugliness, the distortion of the dead ... that is what saps the soldierly spirit.” In ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’, Owen’s change of heart is evident through the irony of the poem title and the ending line “The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est, Pro patria mori.”, an allusion to the Roman axiom made famous by Horace, which translates to “The old Lie; It is sweet and right to die for your country.”. The line depicts Owen’s realisation that the horrific nature of war through human conflict is not sweet and right at all, rather, it is appalling and “bitter as the cud” as death is always present on the battlefield. Additionally, Owen indirectly responds to Jessie Pope’s poetry, a pro-war poetess, through the reference “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest… The old lie…”, further highlighting his changed perspective towards the war which has been influenced
One of the worst things about war is the severity of carnage that it bestows upon mankind. Men are killed by the millions in the worst ways imaginable. Bodies are blown apart, limbs are cracked and torn and flesh is melted away from the bone. Dying eyes watch as internal organs are spilled of empty cavities, naked torso are hung in trees and men are forced to run on stumps when their feet are blown off. Along with the horrific deaths that accompany war, the injuries often outnumber dead men. As Paul Baumer witnessed in the hospital, the injuries were terrifying and often led to death. His turmoil is expressed in the lines, “Day after day goes by with pain and fear, groans and death gurgles. Even the death room I no use anymore; it is too small.” The men who make it through the war take with them mental and physical scarification from their experiences.
The two poems, 'Dulce et decorum est' and 'Who's for the game?' are both very different war poems. Although they were both written about the First World War, they both had different purposes. The poems have aspects in which they are similar, but they also have very big differences.
The Vietnam Antiwar Movement is one of the most prominent eras in American History. Throughout the Sixties and Seventies, people across the U.S., young and old, publicly opposed the Vietnam war. Opposers of the war expressed their antiwar opinions by organizing protests and mass demonstrations. Multiple anti-Vietnam war protests significantly effected North America. Despite being underestimated by the United States government and pro-war supporters, the Vietnam Antiwar Movement led to powerful and influential impacts.
The speaker in "War is Kind" is an officer who grapples with his own conscience in an internal monologue. He is struggling with his feelings of guilt over leading younger soldiers into battle and his military responsibility to cover up the truth. One way of interpreting this poem is to consider that the officer is attending a traditional military funeral for one of his soldiers. This can be seen in the way the stanzas are set up in the poem. In the first, third, and fifth stanzas, the speaker appears to be consoling the weeping loved ones of a soldier who died in the war. This would normally be the job of an officer who leads a regiment into battle. Consoling the family members is a powerful tool for conveying the reality of war. Addressing loved ones of a deceased soldier illustrates the loss and suffering to be dealt with by those left behind. He speaks to a "maiden" (1), a "babe" (12), and a "mother" (23), thereby, conveying one of the most significant truths about wa...
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.