Jimmy Cross went to war only because his friends did, and that led him to danger. He had to lead a group of soldiers when he did not feel qualified to. Tim uses the characters to show the fear of shame as motivation for going to
During the story it also describes their attempts to converse with an A&W employee, but no one will offer them consolation. O’Brien himself realizes that if he didn’t have writing to work through his trauma, he might be in wretched into a place as Bowker. Both stories also talk about the tragedy of the deaths that were occurring. In The Things They Carried Kiowa was an loved member of the alpha company and O’Brien friend. Although O’Brien is unclear about whether or not he actually threw a grenade and killed a man outside My Khe, his memory of the man’s corpse is strong and recurring, symbolizing humanity’s guilt over war’s horrible acts.
Wilfred Owen had a good education as well, but (unlike Rupert Brooke) he went to war, and saw what it was it was really like, the bad conditions, the lack of food and meaningless deaths, Wilfred Owen realised that the war was cold and cruel, not like people imagined it. This poem is very negative, and quite sad, unlike ' The Soldier' it expresses the tormented thoughts and recollections of a teenage soldier in the 1st World War, who has lost his limbs in battle and is now confined, utterly helpless, to a wheelchair. I think Wilfred wanted people to realise that the war was not as glorious and victorious as people thought, there were so many men whose lives were thrown away even if they did physically survive it.. Unfortunately Wilfred Owen died on the 4th of November 1918, before the end of the war. To conclude, these two poems are different in many ways (attitude, mood, tone, ect..) One was to encourage the people to fight for their country and go to war, one was to make people see that the war destroyed many men's lives, it had no mercy.
In the beginning of the poem the soldier starts to reminisce about his past. The cyclical nature of the poem is appropriate as it emphasises the pain and the nightmares that are continuously in his mind, giving him no peace or respite. “Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry… a leap of purple spurted from his thigh.” This image when contrasted to the images of his previous life, serves to create a sense of loss for the young. The injury still to this day causes him pain when he thinks about the life he could have had. The soldier reflects on his “youthful” days which effectively exposes Owen’s perspective on the aftermath of war.
This can be interpreted as Owen attempting to illustrate the voice of many soldiers, through a poem. The line, “…Waiting for the dark” indicates that soldiers were simply waiting for death to come, either because they were critically injured, or because they were waiting to go into battle. Another interpretation of this is that soldiers cannot bear the day, as the sight of their injuries, and their comrades’ injuries is too big of a strain for them, therefore they would rather choose isolation over companionship. The rest of the first stanza, Owen describes how war had changed everything. He writes that “voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn” which indicates that laughter of children saddens him as he isn’t capable of laughing, because of the war.
“Brooke presents us with a highly idealised view of war in his sonnets”. Referring closely to the three sonnets you have read, would you agree with this statement? Yes, I believe that Brooke’s sonnets do present a highly idealized view of war. Such an idea is because when Brooke’s wrote these sonnets they were just starting the war, meaning that war was seen as an ‘adventure’ and recruitment was necessary. His sonnets were made to be passionate and patriotic and to show hope and rid the fear of future soldiers.
Private Peaceful shows that while young men go to war to ‘prove themselves’, all they really prove is the futility of war. Do you agree? The novel ‘Private Peaceful’ by Michael Morpurgo shows that, even though young men go to war to prove themselves, all they prove is that war is completely futile. The novel shows this when it talks about the thousands of dead soldiers, the pointless attacks, and the post-script section of the novel. This incredible war story shows us that, even though they display great bravery and valour in battle, the only thing young men who fight in wars accomplish is an early death.
The soldiers that were fighting at war were dehumanised in many ways. Owen portrays this in his poem “Anthem for Doomed Youth”. During the war, soldiers were forced to go and fight for their country inorder to be labelled as ‘real men’. Due to the mistreatment, other teenage boys were suffering as they knew their time would eventually come to face their doom. “what passing-bells… for these who witnessed it”.
Anthem For Doomed Youth is a sonnet written by Wilfred Owen about the realities of war. Wilfred Owen was a soldier during WW1 and therefore understands fully the true experiences of war. He was against war and was appalled by the effects of war on people and their families. The purpose of the poem is to inform the public of the true realities of war and how young men where dying needlessly. This was because during war times the media would tell the public that the war going great and that the men where doing just fine, but this obviously just wasn’t true.
The movie “Paths of Glory,” portrays a war theme - more specifically an anti-war theme. The message of the movie is portrayed through the soldiers and the different “paths the soldiers took to get to victory and survive.” Every soldier went down their own path overall leading to somewhat “glory” which not all of them got to experience. Men died in battle, mental illness (and illness in genera), fellow soldiers doings, death sentences; just an endless amount of reasons. Soldiers believed that they were fighting for the glory of victory or “patriotism” which Sam Johnson described as the last refuge of a scoundrel. Soldiers were brainwashed with the idea of patriotism - leading their country to victory at all costs, even if meant going into battle knowing you were going to die enforcing the message of the movie that, “The paths of glory lead but to the grave.” At first, the movie described the trench warfare situation of World War I.