"How were the corpses disposed of and to what extent were these men commemorated and remembered?" This is the central focus of the article, Trophies and Tombstones: Commemorating the Roman Soldier which is written by Valerie M. Hope in 2003. The subject matter, while strange, is something that unbeknownst to most is a prevalent and well thought out subject in the military of today. How are our burial traditions different from those of centuries ago, what could have possibly brought about these changes, and what exactly is the process that takes place? "At the outset it is worth recalling that war cemeteries, with individually marked graves, are a fairly recent introduction to Western Europe -. The ultimate fate of a soldier killed at Waterloo in 1815 was little different from that of a Roman soldier: both shared anonymous interment in a mass grave. " (Hope, 2003) Already the differences are prevalent between current practices and former. While mass grave sites are common in the modern era, they are known as cemeteries, each site is marked with the individuals name, and they are not lost to anonymity. "The tendency to name the dead individually on communal war memorials at battle sites or in the hometown is a feature of the modern age" (McIntyre 1990; King 1998) That is not to say that Rome did not acknowledge the soldiers lost, but to say that they did not acknowledge the individual; however, they acknowledged the battle through the use of "arches and columns adorned with classical imagery (Borg 1991: 59-67). This creates a possibility that modern-era armies practice what was done in the past. The Vietnam Wall, the World War Two Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial are in essence the same concept; however, with a twist. ... ... middle of paper ... ...e suffering not just on the front lines, but the home front as well. The Journal by Valerie Hope, brought to us the facts and gave insight into the motivations behind burials. Its acknowledged that while expedient and cost effective the casual placement of mass graves does not honor the dead who fought, but just saves money for the government. If someone fights for a cause, their resting place is just as important as any battle that could have been fought. Works Cited Borg, A. 1991. War Memorials, from Antiquity to the Present. London Hope, Valerie. "Trophies and Tombstones: Commemorating the Roman Soldier. "World Archaeology. no. 1 (2003): 79-97. King, A. 1998. Memorials of the Great War in Britain: The Symbolism and Politics of Remembrance. Oxford: Berg. McIntyre, C. 1990. Monuments of War: How to Read a War Memorial. London: Robert Hale.
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.
I felt this morbid and realistic presence of the soldiers and for a mere second felt the gloom and menace of the war they were in. I walked around the site to gather more information on what the memorial was dedicated to. I walked past the mural wall and as I did, I paid particular attention to the various images of people and equipment on the wall. All of the facial expressions of the people on the wall gave the memorial a very real presence to it. I continued walking down the granite walk
Ellis, John. Eye-Deep in Hell: Trench Warfare in World War I. New York: Pantheon, 1976. Print.
On March 4th, 1921, Congress approved the commissioning of a tomb of an unknown soldier of World War 1, this soldier will be buried in the new Memorial Amphitheater (“The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier”). On Memorial day 1921, U.S. Army Sgt. Edward F. Younger, was selected to select from four caskets for the Tomb of the Unknown(“The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier”). He
...plores the process of the return of fallen soldiers to Australia, the metaphor suggesting a happy return which does not take place; and also the various victims of the tragedy, including the mortuary workers and the families, as well as the grief that does not merit any award. A powerful and moving poem, it causes me to think about the wars in the world today and the Australians taking part in them – will the same thing that happened to the Vietnam soldiers happen to them? Will they simply be carted home without honour, only to be deposited on their family’s doorstep causing sorrow throughout the neighbourhood? This poem, despite it referring to the Vietnam War, holds a timeless message: that the victims of war are not only the deceased soldiers but any person who comes into contact with them and their story, including the mortuary workers and the grieving families.
There are an average of thirty funerals a day, and more than four million people pay their respects to the fallen each year. One of those things is the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A young soldier with a face as solid as steel, hands as strong as iron takes twenty-one steps as he crosses in front of the white tomb. The words etched into the tomb are “Here Rests in Honored Glory An American Soldier But Known To God.”
Thousands of headstones in the far distance create magnificent mazes against the horizon. The immense land has very little room to spare as it is overflowing with graves of heroic soldiers. The white marble graves are like oversized dominos stacked precisely in the thick wind ruffled grass. It is almost inconceivable to imagine each tomb is the physical eternal home to a once courageous and patriotic warrior of our homeland. As the fireball in the heavens slowly descends, it creates a glorious silhouette of the infinite number of tombstones.
O'Neill, William L. World War II: A Student Companion. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. Print.
A cemetery is where the past is buried; the people within them carry stories, ideas, and moments that make up the history we know today. Some of that history is buried there to forget, while sometimes, cemeteries serve as a way of remembering. It is in this duality that author of Native Guard, Natasha Trethewey, conveys one of the biggest themes. Trethewey, in her use of cemeteries does not simply praise the act of remembering history; rather she injects guilt in the act of burying the past. Through showing the guilt in turning away from her mother’s grave, and in parallel through showing society turning away from the graves and lives of the Native Guard, Trethewey tries to instill guilt within society in order to encourage readers to never forget the past.
...ings by then, whose memories, fears, and enthusiasms should not be remembered." Thus, unlike the title suggests, this remarkable war memoir is not about one soldier. Instead it refers to the entire German army who were defeated by the Allies. Although the German cause was very controversial, these gentlemen bravely fought for their country. Many men died, many were mutilated, and many more had to forever live with the atrocities they encountered. At war's end, however, they were merely "forgotten" for their failure of success. And although The Forgotten Soldier is an astonishing account of the horrors of infantry warfare, it serves a much greater purpose. It allows the historian to glance into the German experience and realize they too were young men fighting because their nation called upon them, and they deserve to be remembered for such a courageous act.
Klaassens, Mirjam, Peter Groote, and Paulus P. P. Huigen. "Roadside Memorials From A Geographical Perspective." Mortality 14.2 (2009): 187-201. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Apr. 2014
In ‘Anthem of Doomed Youth’ Owen shows another version of the suffering- the mourning of the dead soldiers. When Owen asks “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?”, his rhetorical question compares the soldiers to cattle as they die and suffer undignified. Owen uses this extended metaphor to confront us with the truth, that there are too many fatalities in war. As such, the soldier’s deaths are compared to livestock, to emphasise their poor treatment and question our perspective about soldiers dying with honour. With an overwhelming death toll of over 9 million during WWI, Owen depicts how the soldier’s die with the repetition of “Only the...” to emphasise the sounds of war that kills soldiers in the alliteration ‘rifles’ rapid rattle.’ Owen also illustrates the conditions that the soldiers died in and how they were not given a proper funeral in the cumulation ‘no prayers nor bells,/ nor any voice of mourning.’ Owen painfully reminds us that we have become complacent with the deaths of soldiers, seeing them as a necessary sacrifice during human conflict. Thus, Owen shows us what we have overlooked about war, that is, that it brings endless death and long-lasting grief to the surviving soldiers and the people around
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.
Grayzel, Susan R. The First World War: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. Print.
Kaplan, Amy. “The Spectacle of War in Crane’s Revision of History”. Bloom, Harold ED. New