Analysis Of John Singer Sargent's 'Gassed'

In both the book all quiet on the western front by Erich Maria Remarque and the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen once sees examples of the horrors of war. The theme of the horror of war in all quiet on the western front is seen when a soldier said “ My fingers Grasp a sleeve an arm. A wounded man ? A dead man.” (Remarque 21) Also, in the poem you can see it starts to talk about gas it says “GAS Gas! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling and fitting the clumsy helmets just in time.”(Dulce

As students of history in the 21st century, we have many comprehensive resources pertaining to the First World War that are readily available for study purposes. The origin of these primary, secondary and fictional sources affect the credibility, perspective and factual information resulting in varying strengths and weaknesses of these sources. These sources include propaganda, photographs, newspapers, journals, books, magazine articles and letters. These compilations allow individuals to better understand the facts, feeling and context of the home front and battlefield of World War One.

On September 11th 2001, 70 years old Rita Laser lost her brother. Along with Kelly, Colleen, David, Eva, and Amber who as well lost someone special to them in the attack. Many of the victims families hid in silence after the attack, full of sadness, the government was trying to get revenge for the victims that were lost in the attack. However Rita Laser had a different outlook, she and others did not want revenge by killing other, her, Kelly, Colleen, David, Eva, and Amber were all trying to install peace into the world not start a war. In Sue Halpern’s “A Peaceful Mourning” describes that in the aftermath of the attack they have all devoted their lives into advocating peace throughout the world, in their lost one’s name.

This work evoked strong fascination within me – I have always been fascinated with war. I have also specifically been particularly fascinated with gas masks and the concept of trench warfare. Dix’s portrayal of the battlefield from his first-hand experience in fighting in this war comes off as extremely grim; from the presence of barbed wire to what is left of a tree on the right side that gives off an appearance similar to that of Satan’s pitchfork, Dix is giving off a graphic representation of war that is blatantly grisly – he is not hiding the fact that there is death along the battlefront and it is something that is occurring in massive proportions. Deriving from that observation, killing others is nothing to be proud of. It is essentially murder,

It’s no surprise that soldiers will more-than-likely never come home the same. Those who have not served do not often think of the torment and negative consequences that the soldiers who make it out of war face. Erich Remarque was someone who was able to take the torment that he faced after his experience in World War I and shed light on the brutality of war. Remarque was able to illustrate the psychological problems that was experienced by men in battle with his best-selling novel All Quiet on the Western Front (Hunt). The symbolism used in the classic anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front is significant not only for showing citizens the negative attributes of war, but also the mental, physical, and emotional impact that the vicious war had on the soldiers.

An artist's job is to interpret, and express the aspects of life in a creative fashion. War has played a big part in shaping our human history, and many artists have portrayed their feelings about art through paintings, and even monuments. Whether it be to show; the joy of victory, the sorrow of defeat, or to educate the public on the gory realities of war. Art about war can also show us a great amount of history of the kinds of weapons that were used at the time. It is necessary for artists to interpret, and criticize all aspects of life; even ones as tragic as war, It can make the public more aware of what goes on in times of war.

Memoirs of war often reflect the positive or negative experiences endured throughout battle. Considered by many to be one of the best memoirs of World War I, Hervey Allen’s “Toward the Flame”, recalls his own experiences of battle. His recollection of events shows that he had a negative image of war and that there was nothing glorious about it. What started out looking like a man’s greatest adventure turned into a shell-shocking reality that war is actually horrible and trying. Allen’s experiences with consistent hunger, mustard gas, and artillery shellings led to his disillusionment with war, and left him with a permanent hatred of battle.

World War I was a war that shocked the world and brought about new emotions that created a large wave of “-isms” as well as the “lost generation” of writers. Modern art was catalyzed by World War I and without a thorough study of the various forms of art that resulted from it, modern art and the tremendous effect that World War I had on the people of the world cannot be fully understood. This historical investigation will cover a few aspects of the art that resulted from World War I so that a general idea of the emotions shared by the people of the world can be known. A few paintings that represent specific movements will be studied to understand the artistic movement. A number of museum exhibitions will be studied along with government websites, databases, and museum websites, especially from the Museum of Modern Art.

The retelling, dating to April of 1915, details the horrors of the new weapon: “Hundreds, after a dreadful fight for air, became unconscious and died where they lay – a death of hideous torture” (Document 4). This appalling use of chemical weapons would often be repeated in

As an illustration, the author describes the scenery of the battlefield, “The most vivid images of the war show soldiers facing the hardships and terrors of battle. Some confronted the enemy in well-defined battles in the highlands. Others cut their way through the jungle, where they heard but seldom saw the enemy. Still others waded through rice paddies and searched rural villages for guerrillas… They were rarely safe. Enemy rockets and mortars could--and did--strike anywhere” (Boyer 2). By using descriptive language, the author illustrates the soldiers surroundings and evoke the reader’s sense of terror. With this in mind, this gives the readers a better understanding of how inhumane war is and how the severity of war torments soldiers by them through physiological traumatizing experiences. Furthermore, the author quotes a nurse recalling her experiences in a field hospital, “We really saw the worse of it, because the nurses never saw any of the victories...I remember one boy who was brought in missing two legs and an arm, and his eyes were bandaged. A general came in later and pinned a Purple Heart on the boy’s hospital gown, and the horror of it all was so amazing that it just took my breath away. You thought, was this supposed to be an even trade?” (Boyer 2). By using imagery, the author cites a nurse who describes the boy’s injuries in detail and appeals

On April 24, I managed to drift off to sleep, but a scream awoke me. Ahead of us, an unbroken wall of gas crawled towards the trenches at ground level. Someone down the line had fallen, clutching his chest. Bullets whizzed, shells roared and soldiers fell. Screams were cut off as the gas sucked the life out of the victims. They struggled to suck oxygen into their corrupt lungs. Attacking their bronchial tubes, the chlorine leaked fluid into their bloodstreams. The victims suffocated, drowning in their own fluids. The Algerians' eyeballs were white, coughing until glue came out from their mouths. The gas roamed the ground, giving the German snipers and machine gunners a clear aim at the sprinting soldiers. While the alley men opened fire at our backs, I bolted away from that hell containing abyss. I dragged myself off the muddy battlefield. My lungs burned with chlorine and my hip was torn by shrapnel. To neutralize and protect me from the gas, I urinated on my handkerchief and shielded it to my face. This is not civilization, it is madness.

In 1914 World War I became the first event to impact society on a global scale. No person or country experienced such mass destruction or annihilation before. The closeness of Europe’s countries pitted them against each other and strong nationalist feelings emerged in government and civilian life. The soldiers experienced the worst of the war during its duration. Most lost their innocence due to the clouded perception of war by society, the young age of the recruits, and such high intensity falling on their shoulders. All Quiet on the Western Front candidly portrayed the struggles of the Lost Generation while and after the Great war took place.

‘No doubt they’ll soon get well; the shock and the strain / have caused their stammering, disconnected talk,’ writes Siegfried Sassoon in the poem Survivors (1917). Sassoon’s irony in these lines condense a prevalent view of non-combatants during the First World War that the soldiers would recover from their physical injuries and mental illness after the phase of shock had concluded. In the short story Speed the Plough (1923), Mary Butts articulates scepticism towards the idea that Shell Shock will simply pass. Instead of employing the habitual indicators of war, the story showcases Butts’s fixation in avoiding them. Modernist writers, such as Butts, were interested in innovation and experimentation with language to create new forms of expression. The following analysis will explore how the modernist aesthetics shape this passage in order to express the experience of war but avoid recurring to the same language that explicitly evokes it.

Tremendous technological advance and tremendous slaughter leave an artistic waste land of atrocity, emasculation and pointing posters used to manipulate the public into recruiting men to join the military around the globe. Skilled illustrators in America, less inventive but artistic allegory’s in Canada and France and plain typography in Britain leave many artists busy with supporting the war effort. On the outskirts of war were a contingency of international peoples with little means and a negative view of European culture and war that chose to defect to Switzerland where they created the art movement known as Dada.

Images, such as paintings and photographs, are intensely visually striking and evoke strong emotions in those who view them.“Into the Jaws of Death” provides a perfect example of that intensity, having been taken by Robert F. Sargent during the early morning hours of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Even today the famous photograph evokes strong emotional reactions in many people who view it. This photograph served a purpose more significant than was realized at the time, to the point of becoming a pivotal point in support for the war effort. How was this accomplished? By conveying personal themes of heroism, patriotism, and mortality through devices such as angles, colors, uniforms, and proxemics.