Throughout the history of the world, there have been few wars that match the magnitude of the “Great War.” Over the course of four years, millions died in battle and many new technologies and weapons were used to consume the lives of enemies. “The Two Soldiers’ Views” allows people to see the horrors of this extensive war through two soldiers’ eyes. This historical document consists of a letter and a poem written by two different soldiers. The first document was written by Fritz Franke in the early months of the war, but was later published in New York in 1929. Franke was a medical student from Berlin who describes the western front and trench warfare. Franke ultimately gave his life in May 1915, but his words live on. The second document was …show more content…
Fritz Franke starts his letter by painting a picture of the western front, “Every foot of ground contested; every hundred yards another trench; and everywhere bodies – rows of them! All the trees shot to pieces; the whole ground churned up a yard deep by the heaviest shells; dead animals; houses and churches so utterly destroyed by shell-fire that they can never be of the least use again.” The western front of the first Great War was a huge stalemate that essentially became a gigantic burial-ground. After describing the western front Franke began to describe the jubilance of being done for the day and going to take a break even though he knew that you had to be alert and ready to go back to fighting in an instant. Franke ends his letter with an odd change to the tone; he goes on to compare the war to being pleasant. He claims the war brings people closer to the human nature than anything else as each individual has to live according to his own instincts. In “Counter-Attack” Sassoon describes the misery of the
The three narratives “Home Soil” by Irene Zabytko, “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl, and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen all have the same feelings of war and memory, although not everyone experiences the same war. Zabytko, Weigl, and Owen used shifting beats, dramatic descriptions, and intense, painful images, to convince us that the horror of war far outweighs the
Generals Die in Bed certainly demonstrates that war is futile and the soldiers suffer both emotionally and physically. Charles Yale Harrison presents a distressing account of the soldiers fighting in the Western front, constantly suffering and eventually abandoning hope for an end to the horrors that they experience daily. The ‘boys’ who went to war became ‘sunk in misery’. We view the war from the perspective of a young soldier who remains nameless. The narrator’s experience displays the futility and horror of war and the despair the soldiers suffered. There is no glory in
The topic of war is hard to imagine from the perspective of one who hasn't experienced it. Literature makes it accessible for the reader to explore the themes of war. Owen and Remarque both dipcik what war was like for one who has never gone through it. Men in both All Quiet on the Western Front and “Dulce Et Decorum” experience betrayal of youth, horrors of war and feelings of camaraderie.
In All Quiet on the Western Front author and World War I veteran Erich Maria Remarque tells the story of a young soldier named Paul Bäumer who enlists in the German army with a group of his classmates. In the novel the reader comes discover the many horrors that Paul has to endure during his service before his untimely death in October 1918, only weeks before the war ended. The events that happen in the novel to Paul and his friends in his company during the war are very similar, if not identical, to what the German soldiers had to endure while World War I raged on in the real world. The way that the novel portrays the soldiers’ rations and reliance on food, their life on the front and in camp, how the young soldiers’ lives were destroyed before they even began, how the older generations pushed the younger ones to enlist, the death of soldiers in battle, and the refusal to surrender matches almost perfectly to how things were during World War I, particularly for the German soldiers.
“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell is able to accomplish so many thing with so little lines-mainly through the use of metaphor and diction. It explains the terrors of wars in gruesome detail and explains the ways in which wars, in a sense “breed” and “birth” death. To some, this poem is seen as the ultimate poem of war, and rightly
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.
From two different perspectives of the war, the author of this book showed that, depending on location and timing, everyone can be affected differently by warfare. It followed the story of two children who grew up on opposite sides of World War II. When their paths crossed, they developed feelings for one another, disregarding the fact that their historical circumstances placed them on opposing sides of the war. In the book All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr depicted how internal principles were able to overpower external pressures.
The first statement in the beginning of All Quiet on the Western Front states that this story is a serious story about death, which is not an adventure, and war has an everlasting effect on the survivors. In the book, the various deaths show the seriousness of death and its effects as described in the epigraph. Also, the novel illustrates specific instances in which a soldier was affected long-term by the war. There are also various quotes that show how soldiers will be affected by the war. Therefore, this book supports the epigraph through the portrayal of death, individual experiences, and the overall effect of the war on the men.
Since the beginning of time, humans have sought after power and control. It is human instinct to desire to be the undisputed champion, but when does it become a problem? Warfare has been practiced throughout civilization as a way to justify power. Though the orders come directly from one man, thousands of men and women pay the ultimate sacrifice. In Randall Jerrell’s “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner”, Jarrell is commenting on the brutality of warfare. Not only does Jarrell address the tragedies of war, he also blames politics, war leaders, and the soldier’s acknowledgement of his duties. (Hill 6) With only five lines of text, his poems allows the reader to understand what a soldier can go through. With the use of Jerrell’s poem, The Vietnam War, and Brian Turner’s “Ameriki Jundee”, the truth of combat will be revealed.
I remember the smell, the sounds, the taste of blood. I remember seeing my comrades fall beside me, the sting of the cuts. The numbness as I fell alongside them, the sadness, the tears. The price of war, I believe my father said that to me before he died. I remember being lifted and carried, I remember a laugh. Then I felt my mind slowly becoming numb, and soon my mind was consumed by the darkness. Like a wildfire it spread from the farthest of places, destroying everything in its’ path. It was over, the war was lost, hope gone; at least until today….
The author incorporates letters written to his family members, friends and relatives about his war experiences as well as photographs of battlefields and military camps
As Douglas MacArthur once said, “The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.” In Ilya Kaminsky’s poem “We Lived Happily During the War,” he elucidates the immoral decisions made by the government. The severe consequences of war are not considered when profit can be made. Syntax stresses the government’s ignorance to the speaker’s view on war.
The wartime lives of the soldiers who fought in the war were in a state of mind of mixed feelings. Happiness and devastating are two adjectives that can describe the soldier’s feelings in the war because at one second they can be happy that they succeeded on a mission, but on the other hand, it can be very devastating because one of their own soldiers could have been killed during the war. Aside from physical danger losing one of your own soldiers or having your family worry about you every day and night are some negatives and unpleasant parts about fighting in a war. For example, soldiers loved ones worried each day, and hoped that they would not get a knock on their door by someone who was going to tell them that their fathers, husbands, sons, or brothers have died in the war.
The beginning of the twentieth was a very nationalistic and optimistic time period. This of course helps to explain the attitudes of the leaders of the Great Powers at the beginning of the war. Of course these opinions contrast sharply with those of the soldiers who actually fought in the war. The preliminary attitudes towards the war contrasted with poems written by the soldiers who fought in them by their difference of opinion about whether this was a divinely sanctioned war and their difference of opinion on whether the war was just.
Conflicts such as the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War One, World War Two and the Vietnam War all share common characteristics. Throughout each of these wars the quality of life has decreased because of the demands and needs for soldiers and civilians. Examples of these poor conditions can be seen in journals, letters, propaganda posters, photographs, speeches, essays and songs. These examples prove that the soldiers in these wars lost many of the activities that many take for granted. It also shows how surviving life outside of the fighting is just as hard as the war itself. This further proves that war is a serious matter and should not be taken lightly.