How Owen Vividly Expresses The Pity Of War In Disabled

How Owen Vividly Expresses The Pity Of War In Disabled

The first line of the poem starts by saying:

He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,

Owen uses the idea of a man who is disabled as a way of making people

sympathize with him because he was not as able as most people. The way

in which he was situated in the dark makes the sentence ambiguous,

showing it could literally stand for the condition of the light or

that the man is alone and helpless. The writer then further made the

point of the man being disabled; "Legless, sewn short at elbow." This

portrays an image of a defenceless man. Owen further rubs in the fact

that the man is hindered by the "Voices" of "boys", "play and

pleasure" which he could hear from the park. This also showed the way

in which the man was thinking of when he was younger. He could "play"

and had enjoyment whilst being looked after, "till gathering

sleep….mothered them". The last stanza shows the pathos of the

disabled man in the same way as the first stanza. This creates a

border for the poem because the middle part described the way in which

he went to war and injured himself. The man felt sorry for himself

because of his physical state; he will spend a few sick years in

institutes…And take whatever pity they may dole." This makes the

reader think about the poor man who had no longer enjoyed a healthy

life. Owen showed the man as being envious of people who were not

disabled; "Passed from him to the strong men that were whole." This

was done to make the reader think about the pain in which the man was

going through.

It is obvious to the reader that the man did not go to war on the

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...d how he got cheered by people in an ecstatic manner. This

is extremely depressing to the reader because they know that football

was a very large part of his life: "It was after football, when he'd

drunk a peg" and to have no legs after the Great War was just a tragic

thought. He still wishes for the attention which he once had because

he asks questions, almost begging to the reader "Why don't they come".

This is because the girls are not coming to the hospital and people

aren't looking after him because he is useless.

Owen said this about all his poems" My subject is war and the pity of

war". This idea of pity explains that there is a contrast between the

past and present throughout the poem this is how the reader recognises

his pain from being normal in the past and suffering from the effects

of war in the present.