War I And Sick Of War

Wilfred Owen wrote about the futility, the suffering and the pity of war from his personal experience on the battlefields. He was horrified with the devastating futile waste of life, the “inhumanity of man” and the depth of its catastrophic effects on young men. In his poems ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, ‘Futility’ and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, he writes with intense focus on war as an extraordinary human experience. The poems also intentionally document other experiences: the horror of war in ‘Futility’; emotional, physical and even spiritual loss in ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, and a cruel and distorted death from mustard gas in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’. As a

“War is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead.” (80)

Wilfred Owen’s poetry is shaped by an intense focus on extraordinary human experiences. In at least 2 poems set for study, explore Owen’s portrayal of suffering and pity.

Wilfred Owen can be considered as one of the finest war poets of all times. His war poems, a collection of works composed between January 1917, when he was first sent to the Western Front, and November 1918, when he was killed in action, use a variety of poetic techniques to allow the reader to empathise with his world, situation, emotions and thoughts. The sonnet form, para-rhymes, ironic titles, voice, and various imagery used by Owen grasp the prominent central idea of the complete futility of war as well as explore underlying themes such as the massive waste of young lives, the horrors of war, the hopelessness of war and the loss of religion. These can be seen in the three poems, ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ and

Wilfred Owen experiences many inner conflicts during his time in the war. The harsh notions of war constantly challenge his personal morals and beliefs. ‘Futility’ explores Owen’s emotions involving the pointlessness of human sacrifice. In the poem, Owen and his comrades lay a dying

The psychologist Sigmund Freud once said, “Because every man has a right over his own life and war destroys lives that were full of promise; it forces the individual into situations that shame his manhood, obliging him to murder fellow men, against his will.” He initially stated this when he was corresponding with Albert Einstein via letter. This quote is also a great explanation of the events that take place during war that people chose to not recognise. War is terrible, and no matter how hard we try, nothing will change that. Erich Maria Remarque shows us that soldiers have endured dreadfully throughout World War I in his book “All Quiet on the Western Front”. The character in the book, Paul Baumer, endures through the tragedies of war with some of his old schoolmates as well as new comrades that he meets along the way. They survive through all of the tragedies together, but in the end, the war made them lose their friendships as well as their lives. The reality is that war comes with consequences while it destroys people, and there is nothing that will ever be able to change that. The book “All Quiet on the Western Front” shows how war comes destroys people's lives with its consequences through three of its themes: the importance of comradery, the loss of innocence, and the horrors and brutality of war.

Throughout human history, we have watched many men and women storm into combat to sweat, bleed, and die for a cause that they believe in. War is no secret to mankind, we have seen it hundreds of times, and we are aware of the mental and physical damage it has the capability of causing. We’ve learned of the gruesome damage caused by the first world war, and the numerous amount of lives it claimed. We’ve read the vivid stories authors wrote, using literature as a means to communicate the horrors experienced in war. Even in present day, we’ve seen, or known veterans who have returned from war with mental damage due to the terrible things they witnessed or partook in. Whether or not it is the smartest or most responsible idea, the human race uses

“War is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead.” —O’Brien, page 76

There are many impressions that war is stimulating and fun. Many are told that war will benefit them and that it’s a good thing to do. The stories we listened to in class reveals the dramatic, unchanging truth about war. Many people have lost friends, family members, and peers in the wars. Some veterans have seen their friend, family,and etc past right before their eyes fighting war alongside of them. Many veterans have lost all types of their body parts in the war. People think joining the service and coming home is nothing but receiving a lump sum of money after war, not thinking about the catastrophic things that they will remember. Is the war actually a good place to be?

In both World War I and the Vietnam War, Americans were fighting for long periods of time and there were many causalities. This was only natural to see in war. War will cause pain to anybody that is in its path. It opens the mind to new terrors and allows a person to see things that are unimaginable. Those two wars in particular introduced new warfare and therefore new terror. In both the “Danang” article by Michael Sullivan and the “Dreamers” poem by Siegfried Sassoon shows that war has the universal themes of the constant fear of death and destruction, specifically land and mind.

“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity,” quoted Dwight D. Eisenhower. (Brainy Quote) War was and still is a serious event that is only understandable to those who have experienced it first-hand. World War l was a devastating battle that caused boundless amounts of destruction, not only to countries and cities but to human’s minds and bodies. John McCrae was a man who experienced the inescapable effects of war and the damage it caused to a person's sanity. His poem, “In Flanders Field,” is a written example of how devastating death was and the reality that demise was inevitable, effecting bystanders for the rest of their life.

As an anti-war poet, Wilfred Owen uses his literary skills to express his perspective on human conflict and the wastage involved with war, the horrors of war, and its negative effects and outcomes. As a young man involved in the war himself, Owen obtained personal objectivity of the dehumanisation of young people during the war, as well as the false glorification that the world has been influenced to deliver to them. These very ideas can be seen in poems such as 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' and 'Dulce ET Decorum EST Pro Patria Mori'. Owen uses a variety of literary techniques to convey his ideas.

Through sensory imagery, he portrayed the severe everlasting conditions. Owen’s treatment for shellshock at Craig Lockhart mental hospital influenced his writing and he was undergoing the treatment when his first poem was published. His poems continued to be published even after his death in November 1918, one week before the ceasefire.

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.

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.