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Compare Disabled And The Last Night

Good Essays

War impacts a lot of people; it destroys lives, it destroys innocence. Thousands of lives are lost, thousands of innocent people die because of hatred and the needs for power. The poem "Disabled" and the text "The Last Night" are both based on war and the destruction that war causes: losing lives, losing families, losing body parts and losing innocence. "Disabled" and "The Last Night" both convey the impact of war on the young, innocent people. "Disabled" conveys the message of soldiers losing themselves and remembering who they used to be before the war and "The Last Night" tells a sad story about two brothers who have lost their parents and are being taken to the concentration camp. It relays the sadness and the loss of their youth and innocence. …show more content…

It is written in third person and set during the Second World War. It is about adults and children waiting in a cramped area to be taken to the concentration camps. The atmosphere in the room is sorrowful and tense yet peaceful at the same time. The author depicts the innocence of the children though the line “the children were spared the last hours of the wait by their ability to fall asleep where they lay, to dream of other places”. The fact that the children could easily fall asleep and dream suggests their innocence and purity, how they are not completely aware of what’s to come. They dream of other places because the place they are in now, is not somewhere they would want to be. The phrase “dreaming of other places” also installs comfort and amenity for the children as they know that they are not home. The need for sleep and comfort reinforces how the soldier in “Disabled” waited until sleep had “mothered” him. However, the “adults refused to drink because they knew it meant breakfast, and therefore departure”. This proves that the adults knew exactly what would happen the next day and that they were dreading for their departure, where they knew that everyone was eventually going to die. The adults prove to be more understanding and knowledgeable about the situation, so much that they aren’t even able to sleep, whilst the children are naive and clueless about where they are going. The title “The Last Night” interprets …show more content…

Both pieces suggested that the war had the biggest impact on the younger generation as it destroyed the rest of their lives if they managed to survive or took away their chance at life if they were killed in the war. The young people were the ones who were innocent and naive, oblivious as to what the war was capable of. The soldier in “Disabled” let one foolish mistake destroy the rest of his life, a decision that was led on by vanity, ignorance, innocence and naivety; a choice that affected the rest of his life. The two brothers in “The Last Night” were also young and innocent but they were unfairly punished for no reason. They were both credulous on how their sibling bond would soon be broken as they would probably be separated in the concentration camps. Unfortunately, both authors relay the realities of war, how misguided the soldiers were when joining the army and how war ruined the lives of the

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