As students of history in the 21st century, we have many comprehensive resources pertaining to the First World War that are readily available for study purposes. The origin of these primary, secondary and fictional sources affect the credibility, perspective and factual information resulting in varying strengths and weaknesses of these sources. These sources include propaganda, photographs, newspapers, journals, books, magazine articles and letters. These compilations allow individuals to better understand the facts, feeling and context of the home front and battlefield of World War One.
Autobiographies, diaries, letters, official records, photographs and poems are examples of primary sources from World War One. The two primary sources analyzed in this essay are the poems, “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen and “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae. Primary sources are often personal, written from the limited perspective of a single individual. It is very difficult for the author to capture their own personal experience, while incorporating the involvement and effects of other events happening at the same time. Each piece of writing studied describes the author’s perception of the war. Both of the poems intend to show to grave reality of war, which often was not realized until the soldiers reach the frontlines. The poems were both written at battle within two years of each other. However, the stark difference between the two poems is astonishing. “Anthem for Doomed Youth” gives a much different impression than “In Flanders Field” despite the fact that both authors were in the same war and similar circumstances. The first two lines in “In Flanders Fields” “…the poppies blow,
Between the crosses, row on row.” are an image o...
... middle of paper ...
...ssor Heather MacDougall, “July – 11 November 1918: Pandemic Influenza on the Battlefield and Homefront,” Lecture delivered 9 November, 2011, HIST 191, University of Waterloo
MacDougall Lecture
Professor Geoff Hayes, “4 August 1914: Slithering Over the Brink, The Origins of the Great War,” Lecture delivered 31 October, 2011, HIST 191, University of Waterloo
Hayes Lecture
Itani, Deafening, #350
Hayes Lecture
Hayes Lecture
Hayes Lecture
Hayes Lecture
“In Flanders Fields”
Hayes Lecture
Hayes Lecture
Lahey, A. Frances Itani author profile | Quill & Quire. Canada's magazine of book news and reviews | Quill & Quire. Accessed November 18, 2011, from http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/profile.cfm?article_id=2701
Frances Itani, Deafening, (New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics 2009), #33
Itani, Deafening, #335
Many soldiers who come back from the war need to express how they feel. Many do it in the way of writing. Many soldiers die in war, but the ones who come back are just as “dead.” Many cadets come back with shell shock, amputated arms and legs, and sometimes even their friends aren’t there with them. So during World War I, there was a burst of new art and writings come from the soldiers. Many express in the way of books, poems, short stories and art itself. Most soldiers are just trying to escape. A lot of these soldiers are trying to show what war is really like, and people respond. They finally might think war might not be the answer. This is why writers use imagery, irony and structure to protest war.
Zieger, Robert H. (2000). America’s Great War: World War I and the American Experience. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.
"Queen's University Archives - World War I." Queen's University Archives - Home. Web. 23 July 2010.
“What were the German people feeling and thinking…in July and August 1914? How broad was the “war enthusiasm”? What were the geographical, occupational, and temporal variations in the way Germans greeted the outbreak of the war? What emotions are described by “war enthusiasm”? And what were the other emotions people felt in these exciting and confusing days?” (7)
A brief review of the historical year of 1918 when people were informed to take precaution against influenza, while their children came up with a catchy tune for the "worst epidemic the United States has ever known"1 and comparing it with the influenza of today.
Nancy K. Bristow, American Pandemic, The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 193
"Firstworldwar.com." First World War.com. Ed. Michael Duffy. N.p., 22 Aug. 2009. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
Field, Frank. British and French Operations of the First World War. Cambridge (England); New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
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.
One of the most virulent strains of influenza in history ravaged the world and decimated the populations around the world. Present during World War I, the 1918 strain of pandemic influenza found many opportunities to spread through the war. At the time, science wasn’t advanced enough to study the virus, much less find a cure; medical personnel were helpless when it came to fighting the disease, and so the flu went on to infect millions and kill at a rate 25 times higher than the standard.
Predictably, several letters exist in which soldiers share their unpleasant accounts of the unforgiving interminable First World War. The first letter in the document is a despairing exchange between “A Garwhali to his father” (Omissi, 27-29). Through this letter, the soldier illustrates the warfront as treacherous and unforgiving. The war is becoming increasingly harder to endure when “the bullets and cannon-balls come down
In the fall of 1918 influenza appeared for the first time in pockets across the globe. At first it was pushed aside as a case of the common cold. The influenza of that season, however, was far more than a cold. In the two years that this scourge ravaged the earth, a fifth of the world's population was infected. (1) Including twenty-eight percent of all Americans. In those two years an estimated six hundred and seventy-five thousand Americans died because of influenza. This was the greatest scare Americans had ever seen from a single disease. People between the age of twenty and forty were at the greatest risk of infection. Even President Woodrow Wilson suffered from the flu in early 1919 while negotiating the crucial treaty of Versailles to end the World War. The public health departments distributed gauze masks to be worn in public. Stores could not hold sales; funerals were limited to 15 minutes. Some towns required a signed certificate to enter and railroads would not accept passengers without them. (1) Influenza had killed nearly as many American servicemen as died in battle, ten times and over that number of American civilians, and twice as many people in the world as died in combat on all fronts in the entire four...
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
In 1918, things were not going well for the United States in the influenza epidemic. The disease was spreading rapidly and killing many. The United States was also at war, and it was a struggle to keep fighting with the disease on their hands. Germany had also been affected by the disease, and it certainly caused them a great deal of trouble. But the suffering of Germany's army was not enough to alleviate America's difficulty in fighting the war. Influenza was ...
The poem, “In Flanders Fields'; written by Canadian John McCrae remains one of the most important and memorable pieces of war poems ever written. John McCrae came from a respectable family and became a soldier/ doctor/ author/ teacher. Though he wrote textbooks on medicine and numerous poems, he will be forever remembered as being the voice of the many who had fallen during WWI. In Flanders Field, the “s stirred the hearts of soldiers and their families’s everywhere- not just Canada. In simple language and with flowing verse, it vividly evoked the situation and emotions of the front line troops.