Rino Kim English 101 Essay 2 War is Pain Wars are often a time filled with violence and chaos. Times of war bring heavy emotions and actions. In Horst Faas’ War is Hell and Malcom Browne’s Burning Monk, both pictures portray the rebellion and hatred of war. They use different elements of pictures like dominance and subtle objects and color to reveal the negative emotions felt towards war in those times. War brings death and destruction to anyone involved.
Guernica does not directly portray the bombings, instead, it shows the terror and chaos created by war. The scene appears to be contained within a room. From the left stands a bull, beneath it a woman holds her dead child. A horse takes centre place, crying in agony from its wounds, a javelin piercing its torso. Below the horse, lays a male figure, his left hand bearing stigmata and his right holds a broken spear with a flower growing from it.
‘Guernica’ is not just one of Pablo Picasso’s most famous artworks but also perhaps represents his most persuasive political statement. Picasso used ‘Guernica’ to portray his views on the destruction of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War in 1937. It represents the horror of war and is now recognized by many as an international symbol of peace. Picasso used this work to portray his views on the total destruction caused by the German raid on Guernica in which hundreds of innocent civilians were killed. Picasso uses images such as fallen soldiers, animals suffering and women in pain as well as destruction of buildings to portray his sorrow and the suffering of war.
The various pieces appear broken and petrified. This painting is making an extremely strong point. Picasso intended to make a bold statement. He interpreted the event as a horrifying event that people need to experience. This is obvious from the various disfigured people and animals.
I believe Picasso chose to do this painting in black and white because it gives more of a gloomy tone and it also gives a greater emphasis on the many different shapes involved in the painting. Also, by painting his artwork on a large scale, I believe Picasso wanted to voice the pain and suffering of the citizens of Spain in a large way. I interpreted the dead child in the woman’s hands to symbolize how painful and unfair war is. Moving along to the center of the painting I see a horse with what appears to be
The Spanish Civil War (1936-9) was a major conflict that devastated Spain, leaving thousands dead and leaving much of the state's economic and social infrastructure in ruins. The war increased international tensions in Europe thus making World War II less inevitable. The war was basically between the Communists, who supported the Republican government and the right-wing rebels or Nationalists, who were under General Franco. This war also saw involvement from other European countries since both sides of the conflict - the Right-wing Nationalists and the Left-wing Republicans - requested and received foreign aid. Aid was provided in terms of financial material goods, war material and troops.
The interesting of this picture is the uncertainty of what the painting was supposed to mean. First, begin with the horse which is located at the center of the mural and run through by javelin that represents agony. This symbol can be interpreted as Franco’s Nationalism which Picasso foretelling for its collapse because Picasso was on the Republican side. However, in the same character the viewers can see this as the people of Guernica or even Spian who were victimized by the war. The other main animal in this mural is the bull which is located on the left of the mural.
In the Sassoon’s poem “Aftermath,” he explains war as something that can never be forgotten. The distasteful thought haunts everyone to the point where war completely takes over the human mind. He documented the war environment as something that was unbearable to live at. Waking up next to a fellow member and seeing their body decay was worrisome. The rats crawling everywhere because the environment was not clean and unsanitary was frightening to see.
Main ideas in War Poetry The main idea in war poetry, written during World War One – 1914-18, is the harsh reality of war. Poets such as Wilfred Owen use the language techniques of simile, rhyme, repetition and personification to help convey the main idea. Owen uses techniques to paint a grim picture of what war was like and how it affected people. Through this, we see that war is often glorified, thus Owen was able to counter the glorification of war. After reading war poems we are able to get a true idea of how horrific war was and learn of its negative consequences.
Sassoon’s poetry described the horrors of the war and how disgusting it is. Two poems which show the perspective of war is: Firstly, Counter-Attack, which describes how war is like; and secondly, died of wounds, which show the condition of war. The poems relate to the feeling and emotion war creates. Also it shows how horrible war is. The techniques that Sassoon has used in the poems are: imagery, simile, metaphor and onomatopoeia.