By examining the various forms of media and literature that were produced during the period of the Great War the extent to which censorship and propaganda will become clearly evident. Media Media during the Great War was without a doubt heavily censored. The various forms of media available at the time were being used in order to showcase the heroic feats of the brave soldiers fighting for their nations on the warfront. Many of the newspaper articles printed came directly from war correspondents posted in the countries where the battles were occurring. The British government in particular, heavily censored the material that most posted by the journalists and then even before it went to print.
WW1 was a total war, due to casualties and the amount of men needed, the government introduced conscription in 1916. COS refused to partake in war either on moral, religious or political grounds. During WW1, approx. 16,000 applied to object and all were seen as cowards by the public. People would hand out white feathers to illustrate their hostility towards them and Absolutists were sent to Dartmoor prison.
In result of this, this cause loads of deaths. To conclude the actions from the officers were a very important factor in causing a high death toll in World War One. This was mainly down to their naivety, ineptness and how out of touch they really were. There loss of seeing things for how they really were, was another reason why there army lost so many of their men. In some cases it seemed the army were being sent in blind, as the officers refused to change their old fashioned
Brooke's 'The Soldier' and Sassoon's 'Does it Matter' are vastly different from each other. First of all, they are written in different contexts and the messages are completely opposite. The former was written in 1914 when all young men in England were encouraged to join the army and it was considered an honour to die fighting for the country. Therefore, Brooke's poem shows an obvious patriotic attitude. ‘The Soldier’ was written when the war only started and people tended to believe that that 'the war's going to be over just this Christmas', so the tone of the poem is very optimistic.
How does Owen portray the horrors of war in Dulce et Decorum Est? “Sweet and honourable it is, to die for one’s country” World War I was an abominable ordeal that shocked the world, caused over 16 million people to lose their lives and millions more to suffer for years. Wilfred Owen has described so horrifically the horrors of war, each one seems to grow in significance until everything blurs together into a foul and futile torment that will haunt the dreams of every man for all their lives. Throughout the poem Owen attempts to eliminate the misconception that it is “sweet and honourable... to die for one’s country”, as the title of the poem suggests, through his use of vivid imagery, descriptive language and first person narrative. In the first stanza, Owen presents the idea that the personal struggles faced every moment on the front line are extremely underestimated, immeasurably terrifying and “obscene”.
Although I could only come up with a few similarities the list of differences are way larger. The setting being one of the biggest you must also consider the difference in the characters. With a little research I also realized how different the two authors are in their young lives and in their writing. Michael Bruce was a gunner in the Canadian Army during the second world war, he said that he came up with the idea for “War” in the barracks when an argument started about if it was all right to kill some men if saving the lives of others. It seems like an odd conversation but the men were using whatever they could to get their minds off of the war.
Oliver Cromwell HERO OR VILLAIN In my opinion Oliver Cromwell was a villain because of the mass murders he had committed. He had killed over 3,000 people in Drogheda and over 4,000 all together while under the title Lord Protector I believe he was against the belief and rituals of the Catholic faith. TheChurch of England had already been created by Elizabeth for Catholics and Protestants and the majority of both religions had agreed that they would worship under Church of England guidelines, so there was no need for Oliver Cromwell to create a Protestant based faith country. Also he had banned all types of enjoyment like dancing, eating on Christmas, football, and many more. A lot of people hold him responsible for the execution of King Charles I even though there were 59 Parliament lords who signed for the execution of King Charles I.
The war had seen over 1.2 million black men join the US army. The experiences of racism and formal segregation had radicalised the soldiers, especially the Northern blacks, as they had never encountered the harsh treatment of blacks in the Southern states. Many soldiers would later join the fight against segregation back home; the evidence for this was the massive rise in NAACP members. Furthermore, at liberation of Nazi concentration camps, the extreme horrors of racism for a ‘lesser’ race was shown to US and the world, this convinced many people back in the US that racism was completely unacceptable. The impact from the war influenced public opinion on racism, however they couldn’t make de facto changes regarding segregation and so wasn’t the main reason for the improvement in effecting the position of African-Americans.
The violence escalated, and this is why British Troops were sent to the area to maintain the peace. The struggle between Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants had a long-term history. The Nationalist’s wanted an Independent Ireland but their rebellion, the Easter Rising on 1916, failed because the British quickly defeated them. It was difficult to control the situation as hundreds of constables were resigning because they feared for their lives. Both sides were constantly gunning down innocent people.
At the outbreak of World War 1 hundreds of thousands of young men enlisted in the Army. This was fuelled by the jingoistic glorification of war and associated propaganda. This included posters of strong fit and brave young men wearing smart uniforms believing ‘Dulce et Decorum Est. (it is honourable to die for one’s country) Siegfried Sassoon, and to a lesser degree Wilfred Owen believed this propaganda and both enlisted in 1915. In this essay I will explore the emotions and moods portrayed in two poems, ‘Suicide in the Trenches’ by Siegfried Sassoon and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen.