Dulce Et Decorum Est And The Boy In Striped Pajamas

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 Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” the speaker’s argument against whether there is true honor in dieing for ones country in World War I contradicts the old Latin saying, Dulce et Decorum Est, which translated means, “it is sweet and honorable to die for the fatherland”; which is exemplified through Owen’s use of title, diction, metaphor and simile, imagery, and structure throughout the entirety of the poem.

One is to think of war as one of the most honorable and noble services that a man can attend to for his country, it is seen as one of the most heroic ways to die for the best cause. The idea of this is stripped down and made a complete mockery of throughout both of Wilfred Owen’s poems “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Anthem for Doomed Youth”. Through his use of quickly shifting tones, horrific descriptive and emotive language and paradoxical metaphors, Owen contradicts the use of war and amount of glamour given towards the idea of it.

Dulce Et Decorum Est illustrates how something as petty as fighting is never worth the loss of human life. In the poem, it describes a soldier's hatred to the fighting by saying, “Many had lost their boots but limped on, blood shot. all went lame; all blind; drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of tired, outstripped

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is another of Wilfred Owen’s poems that conveys inner human conflict, in terms of past doings in World War I. The poem was written in 1917 at Craiglockhart (Owen’s first battle after his rehabilitation due to ‘shellshock’). It portrays an inner change in his approach to war and it’s gruesome environment:

To die for one’s country is horrible and wrong. For now, this may seem like a mistake, like this is all a mistake, and that the statement itself cannot possibly be what is meant to be written in the first sentence of this page. But it is supposed to be there, because there it is, bold and right. The poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est” is truly bold and right in its horrifying descriptions of what it is actually like to die for one’s country. It not only proves a statement wrong, but manages to determine countless lies to be existent in our lives, for everything could be a lie. “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen is truthful through the use of low and high level meanings, tone, and symbolism.

In the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, it is very tragic and full of anti-war thoughts. In “Who’s for the Game?” by Jessie Pope, the author is pro-war because she talks about feeling the rush in war. The poems are very different from each other and both have a lot of good points. The mood and tone are very different and the author's ideas differ. They are both going to give you a different side on the war, weather you should or shouldn't go to war.

In the book All Quiet On the Western Front, Paul Baumer, a young school boy, and his friends are persuaded to join the German Army in the midst of World War I. While in a school classroom, Paul’s teacher goes on and on about the glories of war and the valor that comes with the name soldier. In a burst of pride, the class of school boys rush to enlist in the army at their first chance, with no second thoughts. What the men didn’t understand is that war does terrible things to a boy, a man, a country, and a world. People can do horrible things to each other, and so can war. War can be seen as the hero of a devastating situation to some, but to others, war is the instrument of their destruction.

Nationalism has played a crucial role in world history over the past centuries. It continues to do so today. For many, nationalism is indelibly associated with some of the worst aspects of modern history, such as the destructive confidence of the Napoleon’s army and the murderous pride of Nazi Germany. Large numbers of people, descent in their hearts, have carried out unbelievable atrocities for no better reason than their nation required them to. Authoritarian and totalitarian regime have crushed dissent, eliminated opposition, and trampled on civil liberties in the name of the nation.

Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” makes the reader acutely aware of the impact of war. The speaker’s experiences with war are vivid and terrible. Through the themes of the poem, his language choices, and contrasting the pleasant title preceding the disturbing content of the poem, he brings attention to his views on war while during the midst of one himself. Owen uses symbolism in form and language to illustrate the horrors the speaker and his comrades go through; and the way he describes the soldiers, as though they are distorted and damaged, parallels how the speaker’s mind is violated and haunted by war.

“Dulce et Decorum Est” is a poem written by English soldier and a poet, Wilfred Owen. He has not only written this poem, but many more. Such as “Insensibility”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, “Futility”, “Exposure”, and “Strange Meeting” are all his war poems. (Poets.org) His poetry shows the horror of the war and uncovers the hidden truths of the past century. Among with his other poems “Dulce et Decorum Est” is one of the best known and popular WWI poem. This poem is very shocking as well as thought provoking showing the true experience of a soldiers in trenches during war. He proves the theme suffering by sharing soldiers’ physical pain and psychological trauma in the battlefield. To him that was more than just fighting for owns country. In this poem, Owen uses logos, ethos, and pathos to proves that war was nothing more than hell.

The second chapter of the book, "The Plague of Nationalism," fits into the myth of war by telling the people of any country that it is o.k. to hate and it is o.k. to kill even though the cause might not be just. He states that: "Lurking beneath the surface of every society, including ours, is the passionate yearning for a nationalist cause that exalts us, the kind that war alone is able to deliver. We abandon individual responsibility for a shared, unquestioned communal enterprise, however morally dubious" (45). There is a myth within nationalism that it is right. However morally wrong the reasons of war are, the myth of nationalism brain washes us into thinking that we are right. We are doing this for the right reasons and therefore to support our military however morally dubious the cause is. Chris Hedges writes about a general who, "during a dispute with Chile, flew his helicopter over the Chilean border in order to piss on Chilean Soil" (42). Coming from the view of a person who wasn't involved on either aspect of the war, this sounds a bit over the edge. Chris Hedges talks about how nationalism and racism are almost directly related in war time. People do things they wouldn't normally do under the circumstances. War drives us to do things we wouldn't normally do, thus dominating a

“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen takes its title from the Latin phrase that means “It is sweet and becoming to die for one’s country”. Quite often the barbaric nature of war is over romanticized and the author uses this title satirically to mock the public’s deluded view of war. The poem graphically describes the hell soldiers have to endure in their everyday battle for survival. These are tragedies of war that only veterans can fully understand and Wilfred Owen tries to enlighten the general public of these tragedies through imagery and similes throughout his poem.

Throughout World War One, the ideology of nationalism spread throughout Europe like a virus; while Liberal ideologies were crushed by the governments in the fear of nonconformity. As the war reached its breaking point in the late 1910’s, the once jubilant feeling of war had dwindled away. Those who once were celebrating in the streets as their loved ones left for the war, were left with many not coming home. With the losses coming in from both sides, there was a growing discontent with their governments. With that discontent came ethnic entrepreneurs who took that anger and turned it against other ethnicities to further push their devious agendas. One of the most infamous ethnic entrepreneurs was Adolf Hitler: a man who took economic anxieties and blamed them on the Jewish population.

The saying, “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori,” was once believed; it means that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. Because Wilfred Owen knew the horrors, he opposes this saying in his poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est.” The narrator provides vivid images of his experience in WWI which includes both the exhaustion the soldiers endured while walking to their next resting point and of the death of a fellow soldier due to gas. His PTSD shows us that the gas experience continues to haunt him: “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, / He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning,” (ll.15-16). The narrator also explains why young men should reconsider joining a war if given the opportunity; it is not worth the horror. The war leaves, “incurable sores on innocent tongues,” (l.24), due to the overbearing evils war brings, leaving soldiers faces’, “like a devil’s sick of sin,” (l.20). Ironically, war is too much sin for the devil. The narrator emphasizes the vulgarity of a war, “Obscene as cancer, bitter as cud,” (l.23). Owen ultimately maintains that it is not glorious dying for one’s country because of the many horrors.