Similarities Between Out, Out And Disabled By Wilfred Owen

In ‘Disabled’, Wilfred Owen a war veteran tells the story of a young soldier who returns from war and realizes how dissimilar his old life is to his new one where he is disabled both mentally and physically despite the fact that his mind may seem unaffected by past traumas the reader will begin to understand the subtle hurts that have slowly damaged him. In contrast, the story of ‘Out, out-‘ is of a boy completing his everyday chores, sawing wood, in the backdrop of the Vermont mountains. He accidentally cuts his hand off and he succumbs to death despite a doctor’s aid.

Eco-critics ask questions such as whether or not ‘Everything is connected to everything else’, in order to explore the realms of human thought. In relation to Wilfred Owen’s poems; Futility, Spring Offensive, and Exposure, this theory that all living things are interconnected is a multifaceted one. Nature is used heavily as a centralised motif in each of them, albeit in different ways, in order to represent a range of both internal and external battles Owen’s soldiers are forced to undergo during active service in the war. The soldiers are also depicted to depend on, as well as exploit their rural surroundings in equal measure, particularly concerning military action.

Wilfred Owen uses language and poetic devices to evoke sympathy for the soldier in the poem by using in-depth descriptions. An example of this is in the first stanza where the soldier in the poem ‘shivered in his ghastly suit of grey’. The ‘g’ sound in the words ‘ghastly’ and ‘grey’ emphasises the horror of ‘ghastly’ combined with the dreariness of ‘grey’, which are now the two main features of his life. The word ‘ghastly’ shows something that is strange and unnatural. The adjective ‘grey’, which has connotations of bleakness, portrays an image of darkness and monotony. Furthermore, the verb ‘shivered’ shows that he is vulnerable and exposed. In the phrase, ‘Legless, sewn short at elbow’, the sibilance at the end of ‘Legless’, and in ‘sewn short’ tell us that the short-syllable words are ruthlessly to the point, so it emphasises the fact that the soldier has no arms and legs because of his wounds.

The poem “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen is about a young soldier who has lost his legs during the First World War. Owen wrote the poem whilst he was being treated for shell shock at the Craiglockhart War Hospital. It is very likely that he would have seen lots of soldiers pass through his ward with severe injuries such as missing limbs.

The theme of loss is portrayed similarly in the two poems ‘Disabled’ and ‘Out, out-’. Both of these poems are about the protagonist dealing with physical loss as they both experience an accident. Both Wilfred Owen and Robert Frost manage to mesmerize their audience’s attention, and also sympathize for the protagonists’ misfortune. They do this by the use of many literary techniques which are obvious at times, but some are very subtle, such as similes, metaphors, personification, and contrasts.

Explore the Use of Contrast in Wilfred Owen’s ‘Disabled’ and Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour.’

Wilfred Owen’s poetry effectively conveys his perspectives on human conflict through his experiences during The Great War. Poems such as ‘Futility’ and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ portray these perceptions through the use of poetic techniques, emphasising such conflicts involving himself, other people and nature. These themes are examined in extreme detail, attempting to shape meaning in relation to Owen’s first-hand encounters whilst fighting on the battlefield.

How does Owen’s portrayal of the relationship between youth and war move us to a deeper understanding of suffering?

In Robert Frost’s poem “Out, Out-” the poet uses literary devices to describe the setting and thorough meaning of the poem. Frost has created a character during World War 1, and the character gets injured and dies from that injury. Frost reveals imagery, diction, and figurative language.

In Robert Frost’s poem “Out, Out” an overwhelming theme of agony can be sensed as

In the poem ‘Disabled’, poet Wilfred Owen portrays the horrors of war and the brutal aftermath by using powerful imagery, dramatic contrasts of pace and time, overwhelming irony and by creating a strong sense of sympathy for the soldier of this poem. The contrasts between health and illness, life and death feature greatly in the poem; this gives the reader a ‘before and after’ picture of the soldier’s (subject’s) life.

Compare how the theme of loss is communicated in the poems “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen and ‘Out, Out –‘by Robert Frost

One theme that unites these two poems is the loss of human dignity and the pity of war. In ‘Disabled’ the soldier is incompetent of doing simple everyday tasks such as putting himself to bed and is dependent on others to do so whereas in ‘Refugee Blues though the speaker is physically capable, their identities have been snatched away from them ‘yet there’s no place for us’ linking with the theme of denied human rights as part of war. The young man in ‘Disabled’ represents the picture of millions and millions of soldiers who got wounded and decapitated during war. Owen wants the readers to realize how great of an impact war can have ,not just short term causes but, it can affect generations upon generations which is partly the fact why we still learn about WW1 and WW2 even today after more than half a century. In ‘Disabled’, Owen portrays a man being alienated because of his disability. Having physical disabilities downgrades one’s masculinity and self-esteem and the soldier in the poem seems to be suffering in paranoia as he envies and constantly looks upon “the strong men that are whole”. He notices how abnormal he is viewed by other people, even by women who he once could woo easily now “touch him like some queer disease”. The reader empathizes with the soldier and imagines themselves in his shoes. In ‘Refugee Blues’ the loss of human dignity is due to fact that their identity of being a Jew is the sole reason why they are being hunted to be killed.

"liked a blood smear down his leg" as if it made him feel strong and

The use of repetition is very effective by Wilfred Owen in the final two stanzas as he laments “why don’t they come”. Owen contrasting to his usual style of gruesome language uses a metaphor where the young soldier is waiting for death to arrive, however seems to be continually postponed. When death will arrive, all his suffering will come to an end, echoing the phase duplicates the effect of desperate pleading. The author may be suggesting that the comrade has not only been tormented physically but socially as he may be waiting for his friends to visit him. Auden uses his emotive linguistic devices to compare the “refugees” with animals: “poodle in a jacket”,the Jews were treated as sub-human. Auden tries to suggest the level of humiliation directed at them through hatred and utter insult. The poet goes on to lament “fish swimming as if they were free”: a clear juxtaposition as fish are free and they require to be, Auden continues to emphasize their hardship by sobbing that the fish are “only ten feet away” : freedom so close yet they cannot reach it. Which highlights the lack of rights the refugees have. The use of metaphor and simile undermines the significance of the harsh lives. The cause behind refugee blues lacking figurative techniques, as the refugees are foreshadowed as walking dead and their end is inevitable.The use of little colourful imagery mirrors the