A Comparison in the Presentation of the ‘Horrors of War’ in Birdsong and A Journey’s End

A Comparison in the Presentation of the ‘Horrors of War’ in Birdsong and A Journey’s End

In Journey’s End there are a lot of references to the shear numbers of

people killed on the battlefield. Quotes such as “One thousand eight

hundred companies in France” use figures to stress just how epic the

war really was, the reader has to be reminded of how vast the war was

as most of the readers would not have experienced it for themselves.

Journey’s End makes the mass death seem even more insignificant by

introducing the fact that the German’s were just like the allied

forces, “I remember once at Wipers we had a man shot down…Next day we

blew each other to blazes”, no matter what happened the two sides

would still kill each other.

Similarly in Birdsong there is a lot of description of death, as in

Journey’s End it explains the losses from both sides of the war, for

example the death of Levi’s brother towards the end of the novel, and

the death of the men in Ypres in Journey’s End. The short part of the

novel in which Levi and the rest of the Germans show how similar the

two sides are, they are all just people that are being lead by

different leaders. Another similarity to Journey’s End is the

inclusion of men dying for their duty, in Journey’s End Osbourne and

Raleigh raid the German trench putting their lives on the line for

their country, similarly in Birdsong there are attacks from the

trenches - “ Stephan saw men trying to emerge from the trench but

being smashed by bullets before they could stand.”

In terms of actual violent and graphic imagery Journey’s End is fairly

lacking, there is a lot of talk about death but never any in dep...

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...he brigadiers

pleased”, this quote show a disregard for the many men that had died,

they got what they wanted so they could not care less.

Both Birdsong and Journey’s End make references to the higher

authorities making orders without knowing the full extent of the

situation, however the men had to follow their commanders orders

despite how life threatening. There is again a reference to rescuing

men from no mans land after an attack, in Journey’s End the Germans

let the Allies get the wounded soldier back whereas in Birdsong they

had to be quiet when retaking their dead bodies because they were

afraid the Germans would shoot them.

Overall these two incredible texts both impose a fantastic portrayal

of the war, however they both put forward very different views on what

are considered to be ‘the horrors of war’.