At first glance it seems ironically patriotic, but when one starts to understand Wilfred Owen’s message to the reader, we can see his anger and protest against the military propaganda enlistment. This is where we can begin to see his bravery because during this time many civilians didn’t know what the war was doing to the men. However Owen does take on a more graphic tone later on in the poem, it therefore can be argued that his details are too preoccupied by the suffocating soldier in a gas
Owen’s poems are riddled with references to the loss of youth, innocence and life. In the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed youth” Owen uses juxtaposition between the terms ‘Youth’ and ‘Doomed’ to place emphasis on the dooming nature of war; that despite ‘youth’ meaning the opposite of doomed, through war and the callous lack of respect for human life, even the youth are doomed. In the poems Owen contrasts youth, incorporating terms such as “girls” and “boys”, with the horror and injustice of life on the ‘Western Front’ in World War I, with so many young men being killed, needlessly. Owen refers to the soldiers as “these who die as cattle” which alludes to the harshness of the British Military and the lack of respect towards human life, which is showcased in these particular soldiers not receiving proper burial rites. Through ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ Owen is baled to infer his bitterness towards and rejection of the British Military that left so many men to die, so many young lives taken without the respect of having proper burial rites.
He is distraught to kill a man that he finds out has a wife and child. This brings the realization to Paul of the total senselessness of war. Baumer’s narrative of war is not romantic, but ugly. By late 1918, Paul is still alive but his friends are dead. The rumor was that the Germans would surrender soon.
As a result, humans lose their free will and become victims in the machinery of war, casualties of political ends. The entire novel illustrates the destructiveness and suffering of war. By using a repeated refrain, precise characterization, satire, and tone, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is able to effectively illustrate the destructiveness of war. Whenever someone (or something) dies in the novel, "so it goes" is Vonnegut's automatic mantra. There is nothing a person can do about death - it happens to us all.
Your Smile Fades In The Summer “Fate fell short this time, your smile fades in the summer, place your hand in mine, I'll leave when I wanna.” In the song, “Feeling This” by, Blink 182 it stresses the point of beautiful things not lasting forever. Because of the sinful nature of man, nothing in our world lives on forever no matter how beautiful it may be. In the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” Robert Frost claims that nothing lasts forever. The poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” tells a story about appreciating the things people have in life, and also about the reality of losing them. Throughout the poem the poet shares aspects of nature and life and how in an instant they will be gone.
Perhaps the fact that Ted Hughes has written this poem in the third person is to suggest that the soldier is too mentally instable and petrified to think for himself in a clear, structural manner which contributes to the fact that conflict is destroying him. For example a quote suggesting his instability is, “The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye Sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest,-“The reference to “patriotic tear” implies that he was willing to fight for his country to defeat the enemy because he was a loyal soldier, but soldiers are not made of stone, they are still human and they still have feelings, and cry. This too is another way in which Ted Hughes represents how the conflict is damaging the individual, because the conflict is interfering with his thoughts. Out of the Blue is written in the first person and this is particularly effective when it comes to understanding the extent that the individual is being damaged as a result of the conflict. The reader is able to sympathise with the individual, “Does anyone see a soul worth saving?” ` In this quote the reader understands that the individual may have been strong and brave before the conflict happened, but now
The protagonist, who was keen to remove himself from the rat and lice infested trenches, enrolled himself in a bombardment of the German’s, with little knowledge of what he was getting himself in to. The protagonist was experiencing the concept of ‘Kill or be killed’, had a German soldier at the end of his bayonet and his howling had unnerved him. His rifle stood between him and death and the decision to leave unarmed and possibly die or kill the soldier and survive was to be made. The emotional turmoil was unbearable and the pulling of the trigger was excruciating. Even after this ordeal and the shock, the protagonist was still able to sympathise with the dead German’s soldier’s brother.
But to read it as autobiography is to miss some of its complexity. The final act of the novel consists of the preparation for Amiens and the battle itself. Before being sent off, the soldiers are given a pep talk by a brigadier-general who recounts to them the news of the sinking of the Llandovery Castle, a clearly identified hospital ship that was torpedoed by the Germans in clear contravention of the international laws of war, a “wanton act of barbarism.” It is this information that steels our protagonist and his comrades to go into the bloodbath of Amiens energized by feelings of revenge. But when our hero survives and is sent wounded to Britain he encounters a hospital orderly who says of the Llandovery Castle: “That was bloody murder, brother. Our officers oughta be shot for that.
“…Did they really believe that this war would end wars…it all happened again, and again, and again,” this use of rhetorical question and repetition emphasises the anti-war sentiment that both Bogle and Dawe capture. Similarly in Homecoming, it is illustrated the dehumanisation of war. “…mortuary coolness…deep-freeze…sorrowful…frozen sunset…wintering tree…bitter…grief…”through an extended metaphor, it is suggested the implications on the society from the death of thousands of loved ones; the coldness is symbolising the death, grief and struggling of society and the individual. Dehumanising effects give poets their anti-war point of view the effectively portray the bonds between the society and the
Guilt and Blame The horrible experiences of guilt strip them of their humanity. Jimmy Cross was a great soldier who felt compelled to keep his soldiers safe at all times. Ted Lavender dies from war but because Jimmy was distracted for a bit, he felt guilty that Ted Lavender died because Jimmy loved Martha so much. He felt that he could have done something to save his life. But because he was distracted he couldn’t do anything.