The most effective of these tools in conveying wars futility was the use of graphic imagery to evoke emotions in the reader. This was particularly evident in the poem Suicide in the Trenches and the novel All Quiet on the Western Front. This invited reading was also supported by comparative methods into analysing the film Saving Private Ryan, the play King Henry the Fifth and the poem Anthem for Doomed Youth. Conference Paper: Futility of War Littered through the pages of history are the remnants of past wars and conflicts that have wreaked horrifying havoc and a lasting sadness on humankind. Like the ink stains the paper, the soils of planet Earth are soaked in the blood that spills from the wounds inflicted by futile conflict.
Michael Dandridge P6 M5 4/18/08 Joseph Heller’s novel, Catch-22, is one of his most remarkable as well as well renowned novels. Unlike other World War II works such as “Saving Private Ryan” and “Letters from Iwo Jima”, in which both promote patriotism though the horror of violence and death of soldiers, but Heller’s novel takes a totally different approach. In the novel, Catch-22, Joseph Heller takes a satirical approach to denounce warfare as revealed by the main character Yossarian, the other characters that surround Yossarian, and the effects of the missions on the squadron. Heller uses satire in the novel Catch-22 in order to create a different kind of approach that ultimately changed the way readers were supposed to view a World War II story. Satire being irony, or sarcasm used to expose vice or a moral fault had became the idea for the novel.
Owen then seeks to convince the reader that it is not honourable or right to die for your country, as the title of the poem suggests so. He does this very successfully by presenting his very own opinion through a series of horrific and blood gorging imagery to show that the war is not honourable to die for. In stanza one, Owen describes the physical state of the soldiers to allow the reader to visualise and sense the cruel reality of how the war was for them. Their situation is made more realistic through the use of first person plural as displayed in the line “we cursed through the sludge”. Unexpected and contrasting descriptions of the soldiers such as referring to them as “bent double, like old beggars under sacks”, and associating them with animals by referring to them as “blood shod”, also changes the reader’s perception of what conditions were like during the war.
These poems are all written by the poet Wilfred Owen. I’m comparing the speeches and poems to give the different views on what people thought about war. In Henry V speech Saint Crispin’s day Henry V speaks a lot of glory, honour and brotherhood. All these ideas can inspire even the most despairing and oppressed men. This speech is very powerful and when someone is feeling unmotivated and depressed it has the ability to stir you to focus.
The desire for superiority and domination has plagued the twentieth century by power struggles between nations in the form of wars and large numbers of casualties. Over the centuries, poetry has endeavoured to communicate human emotions and ideas. Some present a glorified war in order to portray their love and patriotic attitude to their audience. Such a view is presented in “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke. Quite alternatively, some poems demonstrate a more realistic representation of war such as Kenneth Slessor’s poem “Beach Burial” and the first excerpt from the film production ‘Saving Private Ryan’ which encapsulate the futility of war and the intolerable atrocities on innocent lives.
The title and structure of the poem contrasts with the content of the poem, helping to convey Owen’s anger at those who advocated war. The title, which translates to “sweet and right it is,” suggests that the poem is about something positive and glorious – the Great War. This is emphasised by the structure of the poem, which is very rigid as it is written in iambic pentameter and has an ABAB rhyme scheme. The title, coupled with the rigidity of the structure represents the powerful left right march commonly associated with soldiers. It also represents the strength and power the public associated with the British army during WW1.
“The Things They Carried” is a text that focuses on writing as a form of coping with trauma and discusses how exaggeration is sometimes needed in a story to convey the message that the story-teller is trying to get at. An example of this is when the author talks about how for Rat Kiley “facts were formed by sensation” (89). Kiley is described as telling his stories as though they are intended to be tragedies, even the funny parts. This is because there is an underlying sadness to every war story, even though humor can be found in them. Part of this may be attributed to the ‘education’ each soldier received when they first went off to the war.
Critical Essay on As the Team's Head Brass by Edward Thomas. Overall, the writer is commenting on war and how war has affected society. The writer talks about how things are changing due to the war. Also, the theme of time passing is important to the poem. The writer tries to pass away time by using small talk which is effective because it also reinforces change: 'about the weather, next about the war.'
Turner does an exceptional job capturing the painful and terrible moments of the war in Iraq. I can imagine a retired veteran reading this poem and instantly relating to it, which is why this poem is so powerful. The first half of the poem uses explicit language that says “Nothing but bullets and pain/ and the bled-out slumping/ and all the fucks and goddamns/ and Jesus Christ’s of the wounded/”(2-4). This powerful, yet vulgar language is what sets the tone for this poem and also delivers the message to the reader that going overseas was no easy experience. This helped in adding more of a reality and complexity to the poem.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a book of fiction whose main character, Tim O’Brien, focuses on stories and the powers they possess. O’Brien believes that stories have a power to preserve people and memories, especially when told with heart-truth opposed to happening-truth. A few stories in particular that declare this power are “How to Tell a True War Story”, “Speaking of Courage”, and “Notes”, and “Lives of the Dead”. Throughout the book O’Brien’s war stories help portray this idea of storytelling and their power to save people. Tim O’Brien prefers to tell stories with heart-truth rather than happening-truth because the first quality makes stories more convincing with the use of indirect connotations.