preview

Analysis Of 'The Two Soldiers Views' By Fritz Franke

Decent Essays

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 This historical document consists of a letter and a poem written by two different soldiers.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

Get Access