Dulce Et Decorum Est: Summary And Irony

One aspect writers use to protest war is by demonstrating the irony in fighting. In Stephen Crane’s, War is Kind, it is said to “not weep...war is kind” (1). During war a great amount of risk is placed upon the soldiers which is the complete opposite of kind. In Amy Lowell’s, Patterns, a man “in a month would [be a husband]” (81-90). Instead of coming home for a wedding, they would return home in a casket. In Kevin Powers, The Yellow Birds, it explains how you are also “taught your whole life there is no making up for [killing] but even your own mother is happy” (Powers D). It is ironic that killing people has been instilled in your head to be awful, but when you are killing people in a war you are known as a hero.

There are times when things can be characterized by one specific quality. An entity can be black or white with no gray space in between. However, war is a different story. To those involved in a war, it can be far more enigmatic than one may assume. In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the author’s structural choices convey the subjectivity of truth during the war.

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 “The Things They Carried” Tim O’Brien uses this story as a coping mechanism; to tell part of his stories and others that are fiction from the Vietnamese War. This is shown by using a fictions character’s voice, deeper meaning in what soldier’s carried, motivation in decision making, telling a war story, becoming a new person and the outcome of a war in one person. Tim O’ Brien uses a psychological approach to tell his sorrows, and some happiness from his stories from the war. Each part, each story is supposed to represent a deeper meaning on how O’Brien dealt, and will deal with his past. In war, a way to

War is something that all countries have been apart of at some point. War, is an awful thing, but it is inevitable and impossible to avoid is many cases. Although, sometimes war cannot be avoided, it is still protested by many people. Many protesters who are also former soldiers; protest war by writing about it using certain techniques of writing. Writers use irony, structure, and imagery to protest war in their writings.

Throughout both writings, “War is Kind” and “Dulce et Decorum Est”, imagery is demonstrated to protest war. The author of “War is Kind” states, “Do not weep. War is kind.”. This line in the first stanza uses imagery to protest war by trying to display the soldiers loved ones reacting to the news of the soldier they love, losing their life. How is this imagery? This line portrays a wife, a child, and a mother losing their loved ones. Also, in the second stanza, it states “These men were born to drill and die”, that particular line displays that the soldiers were only born to fight in war, that was what the men were born to do and that was their main purpose in their life. In stanza two of “Dulce et Decorum Est” imagery is used to protest war when it states, “As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.” This supports the idea that

In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses Juxtaposition, Symbolism, and Point of View to show the burdens carried by the soldiers, and the effects war can have on individuals. He wrote the vignette in order to bring a greater awareness to Americans who were unaware of the dark reality of war. Juxtapositions, such as Desire versus Shame, Morality versus Crime, and Talking versus Distraction, are primary modes by which O’Brien shares the burdens of soldiers. Also, individual juxtapositions such as “Gentle Killer (O’Brien 66)” are used along with dichotomies as a window into the heart of the soldiers, and to show the ambivalence they held when making choices. “On the Rainy River” describes the Desire versus Shame conflict within O’Brien immediately after he was drafted for the Vietnam.

Imagery is one way that writers can protest war. Imagery is usually described and allows the reader to imagine the picture in their mind. “Because your lover threw wild hands towards the sky (Doc A).” This is imagery because in the mind, the picture of a man or woman throwing

War is full of different emotions; happiness, sorrow, pain, anger, excitement, and most of all, fear. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien focuses all these emotions throughout the story, especially fear. He paints a vivid picture of what the fear was like that they faced. How it still affected their lives afterwards, and what that fear did to the soldiers and their thoughts.

Writers mainly use imagery, irony, and structure to protest war in their work. One of the strongest tools writers use to portray war is imagery. Imagery is an effective technique because it immerses readers into the situation. Many of the authors

Have you ever read a passage and wondered how authors can make war seem so horrific instead of persuading the younger generations to volunteer? These four authors are especially good at protesting war by writing: Stephen Crane, who was not actually a participant in war, but encountered a lot of the war tragedies first hand and reported them to the public for the Spanish-American War. Wilfred Owens, a twenty-five year old who died only one week before WWI ended, he would write down his experiences and what he saw, but his works were not published until his belongings were sent back to his family. Tim O’Brien, participant of the Vietnam War who is still alive today and currently works as a professor. Lastly, Kevin Powers, the youngest of them

wounded. Other times he uses symbols to show how the soldiers felt or what they carried meant to them. This chapter was about Henry Dobbins.

Soldiers throughout the ages have had to carry the burden of what war brings upon them. Physical strain is a huge weight to carry, but mental turmoil that a soldier endures becomes the most strenuous and lasting of the numerous burdens placed upon them. When soldiers knowingly carry these burdens into a war zone, it is so a majority of people can live life free from violence and destruction. Strong underlying metaphor is prevalent in Tim O’Brien’s Novel The Things They Carried. Metaphor is used throughout the text of the book to create a sense of understanding or to convey a different meaning than the text originally suggests. This allows the reader to more fully relate to the soldier’s experiences on the battlefield and at home. It is hard to understand such a large amount of destruction from reading a page in a book.

For example, Owen conveys “ He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning” (line 16). This constructs an extremely horrific image in the reader’s mind that helps the reader better understand the horribleness of war by displaying a tragic event Owen experinced. Another representation of this is when the poet states “Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud” (lines 22 & 23). This additionally recreates the horrors Owen went through as a soldier in their mind. Furthermore, the horrific imagery present in “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen assists the poet in educating the readers that war should not be

So, how exactly does imagery help writers protest war? The imagery helps invoke feelings and emotional heartbreak from the audience, because it exhibits the war as a very grievous event. Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” shows stimulating imagery throughout. For example, Owen states that the “[m]en marched asleep.