How Did Odysseus Takeaway Veterans

The Odyssey is an epic about a war hero that takes 20 years to get home.In the epic, the war really never ends. The first thing Odysseus does after the war is fight on the first island they landed on. “Plunder we took, and enslaved the women, to make a division, equal shares to all” (Homer par. )After the war he is still in combat mode an treats everything like war.When Odysseus gets home he is still fighting “But the kingly man let fly an arrow at that instant, and the quivering feather butt sprang to the nipple of his breast as the barb struck in his liver.”(homer par 7) He is fighting the suitors out of his house. Like in Odysseus Vietnam vets stay in combat mode.

Wilfred Owen is almost begging someone (probably the ones who recruit the youth) to tell the world the truth about war, how tarrying everyone is and how difficult is to go on, to keep the hope. For the soldiers there are no dreams of a noble death that everyone will remember through stories. There are no legends that will become myth in their fighting, but real people and real horrific death. The concept of “heroism” that exists from classical literature is not longer valid.

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.

The purpose of war is again in question through the ironic titles evidenced in most of Owen’s poems. In ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’, the sweet and fitting death is contrasted against the bitter and

Odysseus was a King, and a Warrior. He fought through a ten year battle that he was forced to fight in by Menelaus. Which he tried to get out of fighting by acting insane, and loony so he could be with his son whilst he grew up. But Menelaus knew he was faking it. So he fought threw it, and at the end

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.

“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen is written 3 years later in 1918, after “Who’s for the Game” by Jessie Pope. His perspective on war is gravely affected on how the war has been on him. He talks about the excruciating pain the majority of the soldiers were in and the spontaneous chemical gas bomb that blew up on their way home. Many of the soldiers themselves were in horrid conditions. “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge”(1-3) In “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen the title is a shortened version of the phrase “ Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”, meaning “it is sweet and proper to die for one’s country” It is used ironically in this poem because the whole point of this poem is revealing the truth that it is not sweet and glorious to die for one’s country. In fact, the truth is that phrase is a lie meant to persuade children who are desperate for glory and popularity to join the war. “To the children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori”(27- 280) This creates the mood of sadness, because of the idea that so many kids have been lied to and just gave up their

War is not heroic. War is sickness, struggle, and death. This is the message that poet and World War I soldier Wilfred Owen wanted to instill in his people back home. Those back home talked of glory and national pride and rooted for their soldiers, however, they were unaware of the horrors these soldiers witnessed and experienced. The soldiers and their people back home were not only separated by distance but by mental barriers, which Owen showcases in his poetry. Owen’s use of personification in “Anthem for Doomed Youth” degrades the soldiers to objects to show how the war dehumanized them to intentionally create a disconnect between the audience and the soldiers.

“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.

In majority of Owen’s poem, he demonstrates the true image of war and the impact it has on the soldiers rather than masking it with the lies of pride

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.

As the war continued, and the army’s numbers needed to increase, various pro-war propaganda were made, and poets like Jessie Pope and Robert Graves, who knew very little of the reality of war, would contribute with poems romanticising war and the life of a soldier. Wilfred Owen had experienced the war first-hand, and had spent years of his life in the harsh, filthy, and dangerous conditions in the trenches, digging new trenches, repairing old ones, carting equipment and supplies, or spending long hours on sentry duty or on listening posts, or fighting the enemies. He eventually had been so influenced and terrified by those circumstances, he was sent off to hospital for treatment of shell shock, where he composed poems to not only process the horrors he dealt with daily as a soldier, but to shame those oblivious war-supporting poets and bring the real image of war into light for the young men applying to the army as he was outraged by the support of the war from those who had never been to the

War, with its horror and glory, is something that should not be underestimated in its ability to teach truths about the human condition. War shows the bitter truth of the inevitability of death and exposes one’s family and nation to danger and destruction. However, the ability of war to unify a nation and enlighten the minds of soldiers is significant and is what should be remembered most because in that, one is able to transcend them self and evolve to be a better person. In Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians come to realize the role their unchecked selfishness and greed have played in their ruination because they finally acknowledge the consequences of their actions. And as death is a soldier’s constant companion, the Athenians eventually accept their fate – moira – and learn to put fear aside and endure. Interestingly, Homer conveys a similar view on fate and death in the Iliad, and emphasizes the importance of fighting for those one loves (and the enduring kleos to be gained from heroism in battle). The lessons of war, however, manifest themselves differently in the Iliad in the way that war reveals the “true meaning and purpose of life” – what is worth fighting for and what is not (Mannering).