Mental Cases was written to demonstrate the mental consequences of war on participating soldiers in World War I. The subjects of this poem are the inmates in a military hospital. The poem displays a part of the war that to some civilians can be considered worse than losing your life, losing your mind due to shellshock. Owen describes how they are now forced to re-live the terrible acts that they have witnessed on the battlefield. The mood of the poem is one of fury, this is shown throughout the poem with the use of imagery.
Owen wants his reader to feel exactly what he felt about the war, persuade his reader to believe the terror, pain and torture of the war, how devastating can a war effect a human being. He uses imagery and innovative metaphors through the poem. In the first two lines, ‘Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge’, Owen is using figurative language combined with simile and alliteration literary devises to reveal the reality of the war. Soldiers are
Owen personifies the guns shuttering to patter the only hasty orisons of the soldiers. Orisons are religious prayers that are often given out at funerals. The only Terrell 2 orisons that soldiers hear when they die in battle is rapid gunshots. There are no prayers from religious figures at funerals, so not only does religion do not care, but
This indicates that the speaker was not expecting such a horrid, shocking awakening during her slumber because Puritans believe that one should always be attentive and vigilant. In this case she puts all of her faith in God and sleeps. Bradstreet capitalizes words like “Desire” (6) and “Distress” (9) to emphasize the speaker’s strong emotions. As a devout Puritan, both Bradstreet and the speaker, the speaker prays that God will see them through even in times of distress. Even if the house is burned to ashes she is hopeful that a “sufficient … [amount of necessities will be] left” by God for her family (20).
Mr. J was kept in restraint without considering that Mr. J was not trying to get out of bed by himself. When the pressure ulcer was identified, the nurse neglected evidence which should have been a basis of removing restraint. Even if the risk of falling was high, a sound alarm could have been placed at the bedside, which Mr. J could have used when he wanted to use the bathroom. The body of Mr. J was in unnecessary discomfort due to restraint and constant pressure was causing ulcer in the back. Mr. J was diagnosed with mild dementia and was drowsy, so the nursing staff had put him in restraint.
While these kind actions with his nearby residents are honorable and righteous, these actions are not indicative of an exceptional individual, but merely a individual. Rip Van Winkle possessed characteristics of a normal person. He liked to drink, was lazy, and rather than focusing on his own home, and personal home life, he would avoid interaction. While reading the essay, there were some references to Rip Van Winkle's wife being portrayed as a constant nag because he did not contribute around the household. Some might argue that It is because of his wife's berating, that Rip was not proactive in contributing in house work.
Unlike other authors, Owen’s purpose was to reveal the awful truths of war and let us see past what was said to be glorious. His poems ‘Dulce et Decorum est ‘ and ‘Disabled’ tell of his personal experiences of battle and how war continues to inflict pain upon returned soldiers. Similes and metaphors are two language features Owen used that helped me understand the important idea of the true horrors of war, which is worth learning about today. In ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ one language feature used was similes, displaying the awful scene of physically drained men and a gruesome gas attack which depicted the important idea of the true horrors of war. The poem begins with the vivid simile “bent double, like old beggars under sacks”.
Owen uses both alliteration and onomatopoeia to further empathise the firing of the guns. The alliteration mimics the sound of the gun fire. This is also further reinforced in “can patter out their hasty orisons” that word "hasty" makes us aware of the suddenness of death on the war front, and also underscores the haphazard and senseless nature of the killing
Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen were both soldier poets during World War I, and wrote about the horrific events of the Great War. In Sassoon’s poem “They” and Owen’s famous poem “Dulce et Decorum Est”, the respective authors deconstruct and critique the glorification of war by the Catholic Church and society through the use of vivid imagery of battle and its effect on soldiers. Sassoon’s “They” attacks the Catholic Church and its beliefs that war is not only righteous, but endorsed by God. This contrast in beliefs is made very clear by the caesura and the line break between the two speakers: the Bishop and the soldiers. The Bishop is convinced that the soldiers fighting the war are combating evil in the name of God.
Wilfred Owen was an active soldier during WWI, who used his horrific experiences during the war to write his poems. His poems stemmed from his views on war, as he believed that although war was sometimes necessary, it was futile and evil. Two of his poems, ‘Exposure’ and ‘Disabled’ both reveal the price paid by soldiers during WWI. ‘Exposure’ examines the more psychological effects on the soldiers and is written from the view of the soldiers on the front line, ‘Disabled’ shows the aftermath and repercussion of fighting in WWI and the physical damage it caused. The first word in ‘Exposure’ is ‘our’ and is written in first person plural, showing the reader that Owen wanted to convey the plight of the universal soldier and how they all suffered the same fate, no matter their side.