“Zapped while zipping” (107) is what they all said because Lavender died while returning from going to the bathroom. Cross takes the death very hard. Kiowa, one of Cross’s soldiers, talked about how he wished he could feel the grief that Cross was feeling.
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 with the soldier in Arras and in the final battle at Amiens he and the soldier are the only two left of their company. Broadbent believes men should die with pride, as at the advance attack, he said “I know it-I’m dying-god and I’m and glad. I don’t want to go back like this.” (Page 204). Broadbent dies from loss of blood, calling for his mother after he loses his leg at the knee. “Broadbent dies like a little boy too – weeping, calling for his mother.” (Page
These feeling are expressed in the story about Rat Kiley's letter, with which the chapter is started - with his feelings of grief about loss and final «cooze», because he was not written back and he could not cope with his loss. His pain is shown in the shoking story of shooting baby buffalo. However, all these stories might have never happened, the soldiers were fighting the war and facing blood, troops and losses, struggling because of their youth and immaturity, fear that cannot be ignored about war. This terrible experience of war is the only truth that author wants to make the readers understand in his
The “Roaring 20’s” was the time of blinding goals that was led to oblique bliss. The attitude of America in the 1920’s was blindsided by money and the materials one could obtain with money. The quote “when I went to give up the flat and saw that damn box of dog biscuits sitting there on the sideboard I sat down and cried like a baby” (187). This quote to the average reader would seem like Tom Buchannan is heart broken over Myrtle’s death. Tom cries “like a baby” because he feels remorse for lying and cheating on his wife.
The poem however, rejects this maxim by vividly describing the condition of physically poor and decrepit old soldiers ready to die. The weary soldiers are returning from battle and the front liners are gassed unexpectedly by their enemies. The poem records the painful struggle of one of the men, affected by the poisonous gas, as he approaches his inevitable death. Throughout the poem, Owen creates gory, graphic images and uses apt diction to clearly convey the horror and squalor of the war and the soldiers’ extreme languor and suffering. To end the poem, he simply refutes the old Latin saying he considers a total lie; a fallacy.
One of the soldiers fails to fit the gas mask in time, and Owen masterfully describes himself witnessing the soldier’s gruesome death. Owen ends the poem with the Latin proverb from Horace's Odes (III.2.13) ‘Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori’, meaning 'It is sweet and proper to die for one's country' (Dr. Stuart Lee, 1997). With those last few lines, Owen expresses his deepest disapproval of the war. He is rejecting the traditional view that glorifies war, calling it ‘The old Lie’ (line 27). Owen is addressing the reader, who possibly doesn’t have the first hand experience of the war, and criticising the enthusiasm with which the war is described, particularly to vulnerable children (BBC, 2013).
‘as a green sea, I saw him drowning’ in stanza 3 the poet has a recurring nightmare of the soldier he saw dying in agony, a sight that will stay with him forever. In the last stanza, stanza 4 the poet attacks the people at home who do not realise the reality of war and the suffering of the soldiers. “My friend ....” is aimed at an author who writes children’s fiction who glorifies war. He could see the sights especially this soldier who is dying from inhaling gas writhing in pain this is because he couldn’t get his mask on quick enough. Route March Rest is the Second World War poem I am going to compare.
This is portrayed through WW1, in books such as Quite on the Western Front. “Dying for your country” is a shared saying through countries in war to reduce the sorrows of death. I believe this saying should be completely dismissed, families should realize what and whom there loved ones are dying for. Men should know the truth about war before getting involved. These soldiers can’t be truly fighting for there country when there country is a falsehood.
Eric Bogle’s poem, The Green Fields of France, depicts the detrimental effects of war on individuals and the society. The use of hyperbole in, “The killing and dying was all done in vain…whole generation that were butchered and damned,” reflects how the society was ripped apart due to the death of loved ones, which lead to an unhealthy community. It further explains that families had to go through so much grief and anxiety for a war that did not achieve anything. Likewise, Bogle demonstrates the pointlessness of the war. “…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.