"The grasses sway their tall spears; the white butterflies flutter around and float on the warm wind of the late summer." (pg 9) As the quote seems to imply, it is showing the current mood and state of Paul which, in context is a peaceful and tranquil one. It also shows his innocence to the horrors of war. The butterflies also serve as a message of his softness towards his situation and the delicacy of the balance in life. There is another passage in the book when Paul describes the butterflies as being perched upon a skull and fly about the battlefield as if they do not have a care in the world.
He feels as if the stars are mocking him, because they are beautiful, shining, and fill the sky by the thousands, while he is an eye sore and alone. The stars and trees also symbolize the people he’s encountered throughout his short lifetime, specifically the family he secretly studies and learns from. He sees them happy and together and he longs for that feeling, but knows he’ll never fully attain it. However, he willingly gives chances for people to accept him. Each time the monster interacts with humans, walking through villages, approaching De Lacey, saving the drowning girl, or searching for the approval of Frankenstein, is represented by a portion of the selected passage: “now and then the sweet voice of a bird burst forth amidst the universal stillness.” After spending long periods of time in isolation, the monster deserts his “stillness” and gives humans a chance to accept him, when a “sweet voice of a bird burst forth.” These bursts of the songbird represent the times of the monster’s great desire to be accepted and introduced into a normal life, but inevitably fail and he is forced to return to his “universal
When I close my eyes, I am back in the trenches. I see enormous rats eating away at my fallen brothers. I watch brave men stricken
Remarque’s novel is a insightful statement against war, which focuses primarily on the devastating affect both psychologically and the humanity of soldiers. Paul’s narrative reflects persistently on the romantic ideals of warfare. Paul and his fellow soldiers are tempered with the reality that their bonds come at the high price of relentless suffering and terror. Most of the prominence events that refer to character altering situations occur in the final chapters of the book. Paul’s analogy between minting coins and the effect of the war on veteran soldiers is a significant event.
Charles Yale Harrison’s novel Generals Die in Bed strips away the misconception that war and is glorious and in doing so strongly conveys to the reader the horrible reality that was the First World War Harrison emphasises the harshness of this reality through the constant bombardment of gruesome and desensitising events experienced by the Narrator. The dramatic degree of different between the fictional views held by the public and the truth is highlighted by the contrast of the soldier’s experiences and society’s false impressions. Furthermore the novel shows war for what it truly is, a dominant force with the power to consume, transform and scar all that stands in it’s way. Through GDIB the reader is given a raw and truthful depiction of the
The soldiers pulled a wagon and they flung the lifeless body on to it, as if the body had no use anymore. I quickly take my position in the trenches, and in a few minutes I make two new friends I turn to greet them and I am faced with two long haired unshaved, unwashed men who are scruffily dressed in standard issue brown uniform and dirty soiled black boots: called David and William. The enemy were firing bullet at us, then all of sudden I heard a piercing scream, right behind me. I quickly spun over and see William who had been shot. I yelled out saying: “Man down, man down!” William was desperately moving his legs and arms, in an attempt to fight back his pain.
According to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, war is described as “a state of hostility, conflict, or antagonism; a state of usual open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations; a struggle between opposing forces or for a particular end.” This is a logical explanation, but it brings up a question. Is war all bad? Can’t war have good points as well as bad ones? There are good things, too. You don’t believe me?
The poet's reference to the wreck and foliage on line 8 as 'exotic-looking gives zest to the destruction to say its anonymous appearance was quite striking. The poet seems relatively calm and composed despite the chaos. He does not seem to get hysterical nor panicky about the visual predicament before him. His expertise about Jersey, and having lived through seeing its beauty was a blessing and now a curse as he can now work out the intensity and magnitude of the damage. The poem mostly revolves around the river which has a twin personality in this case.
The name of the poem implies that the poet was a proponent of war, but contradictorily we discover that he was not. Undoubtedly, Owen had the practical, realistic knowledge to informatively and effectively portray the war scene. He experienced first-hand the physical, psychological and emotional effects of war on a human being. Although both speakers had contradictory concepts about war based on their own values, knowledge and experiences, they presented their theories with equivalent zeal, tenacity and passion. The speakers are fixated in their beliefs, and adamant about their concepts of war.
An important theme throughout the poem is the concept of war used to glorify violence. The title of the poem which was widely used propaganda at that time exalts the concept of war, saying it’s a good and honourable thing to die for your country, but in reality, as evidenced by the soldier in the poem could not be more different. The idea of suffering is explored with the use of depressing and dismal language. The use of simile such as “bent double like old beggars” gives the impression that the soldiers have been prematurely aged, and seemingly deformed by the harsh conditions of war. This simile is an important contrast of the information people were fed at the time of soldiers being strong and proud.