Weapons Training by Bruce Dawe Essay

For example “Weapons Training” he combines the dehumanisation of soldiers and the harsh nature of war with blatant racist comments in a way which seems devoid of meaning, however it discusses deeper issues by disparaging the harsh treatment of these soldiers and the lack of empathy that is shown to them. There are many examples littered throughout the poem “Weapons Training” which expose these underlying themes and techniques which Dawe has used to explicate his point. An example of one of the aforementioned techniques is the sexual innuendo of “when you go down there…the old crown jewels…because of your position your chances of turning the key in the ignition considerably reduced?” which also incorporates a rhetorical question as its climax. This quote illustrates the idea that Dawe was employing sarcasm to expand upon his central point in that he allows the reader to infer what is not explicitly stated and ridicule the way in which the drill sergeant as the narrator explains how the soldiers must take care in battle, demonstrating the awful treatment of the new recruits. Following on from this, the drill sergeant utilises a variety of military jargon words coupled with demoralising comments when speaking to the soldiers. This adds to the harsh feeling of the poem and highlights the negative attitude of the drill sergeant and his goal of

The poem was written to show that war is a waste of human life as the soldier knows he will die one day as well as the men around him, just some quicker than others. This can be evident in stanza four of the poem: “I know I’ll join them somewhere, one day.” The language used is more casual than formative, this is effective as it shows the personal feelings and thoughts of the soldier during the time

First Platoon had many leaders brought in to try and fix the platoon. Sergeant First Class Fenlason was brought into the platoon as the new platoon sergeant on February 4th, 2006. He was not respected right away because he was one who did not have any combat experience. He was just a desk worker who got brought in to fix the platoon with a cocky attitude. From the Joes perspective he did nothing but “{sit} around smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee, and that’s it. He would do patrols once a month to go and talk to some leaders.” They hated

- Speaker of the poem is a drill-sergeant, shouting at a group of new soldiers

In this poem, a soldier

Most of you are familiar with the M16 rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm. The first version was designated the M16A1and entered into the United States Military arsenal in 1963. It was an ideal weapon for jungle warfare.

The possibility of ladies in ground battle or on the bleeding edge in the military has ended up being a dubious issue all through many years of war. This debate comes from reactions, for example, ladies' physicality versus men's, the relationship of sexual-related circumstances inside the military, and a background marked by fizzled sex coordination preparing.

Many of the soldiers are marching barefoot and are “Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots” (7). The platoon is so exhausted that they do not realize they are about to be under attack by deadly gas. The picture that Owen paints through words in the beginning of the poem is one of darkness and disarray. The reader now knows that nothing good will come out of this night.

As the day is coming to an end, the soldiers are heading back to camp worn out and covered in blood from their open flesh wounds. However, upon their walk back to camp, chaos begins to abrupt from the awareness of gases shells. Fortunately, many soldiers scrambled to put on their gas masks just in time while one unlucky soldier is stuck screaming from the poison entering his body. In stanza two, the speaker recalls the stumbling soldier dropping to the ground and the yelp of chemicals bubbling in his lungs. Additionally in stanza three, the speaker replays the horrific gas attack that he witnessed in a dream. He is stuck hopelessly in the past trying to find a solution to what he could have done to save the dying soldier. Furthermore, the narrator describes the carelessness that the other soldiers had in stanza four. The speaker discusses the combatants flinging the deceased soldiers into the wagon, as if it were just another one down. By adding vivid descriptions of a soldier choking and drowning from the gases, the reader gets an idea of what war is really like. The speaker ends the poem with the following statement, “Dulce et Decorum Est,” which in English translates to “It is sweet and proper to die for ones’ country” (Owen). By adding this phrase, the narrator leaves the reader uneasy about the casualties and truth of

Almost immediately the reader finds out about the soldiers injuries “Legless, sewn short at elbow.” Meaning his clothes are sewed off at the end of his now injured limbs. “Voices of boys rang, saddening like a hymn, Voices of play and pleasure after day.” The sound of pleasure which the soldier hears saddens him as he is now not able to have fun which he once could before the injuries sustained in war. The second stanza describes the soldier’s sexual longing.

In the first lines of the poem, he compares them to “old beggars” and “hags” (L. 1,2). Most of the soldiers were probably young, but due to stress of war, seemed to age almost instantly and while marching resembled old people walking. The speaker then compares the dying soldier to “a man in fire or lime” and the gas to “a green sea”. Considering that this is a memory, seeing a man on fire in a green sea has a dreamlike state to it making it seem more like a nightmare (L. 12, 14). Later he claims the soldier’s face is “like a devil’s sick of sin” and “Obscence as cancer, bitter as the cud” (L. 20, 23).

In these statements alone you can feel the exhaustion and sadness of the soldier speaking. Both of these poems showcase the realities of war, proving that war isn’t as glamorous as people make it out to be. War is exhausting hard work that is often overlooked to become a “hero” for ones country. The descriptive language used in each poem makes you able to feel as if you were in the soldier’s boots. When Wilfred Owen describes, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks/Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through the sludge” (lines 1-2)

“The ‘Eathen” shows us the life of men at war and how they are committing to the ultimate risk for the well being of others. “Keep away from dirtiness—keep away from mess,/ Don’t get into doin’ things rather-more-or-less! / Let’s ha’ done with abby-nay, kul, and hazar-ho; / Mind you keep your rifle an’ yourself jus’ so!” (Lines 73-76). You can’t go halfway into things, you must commit yourself to change: “An’ now the hugly bullets come peckin’ through the dust, / An’ no one wants to face ’em, but every beggar must; (lines 53-54). Everyone has the option to take risks in their lives, but some are bitter from the taste of failure. “The young recruit is ’appy — ’e throws a chest to suit;” (line 25). The recruit is happy because he has risked his life for others, he has found his purpose in pursuit of risk, and as a result,

The introduction showcases imagery to encapsulate the effects of war. The second line of the poem describes movement as “slow,” this shows that war moves as if it will never end making victims feel trapped in agony and distress. In addition, references to weaponry such as bombs and rifles are displayed, meaning that war results in death and destruction. These forces led to grief and despair as shown by the tears and screaming of citizens.

The Drill Sergeant plans everything to his or her idea of perfection. In most cases, The Drill Sergeant in the family is a woman. She often suffers from OCBD (obsessive children’s behavior disorder) and has a supercilious attitude towards everyone in her family. She pays painstaking attention to the manners of everyone around her and does not shy from pointing out everyone’s mistakes. When the Sergeant cooks dinner for the family, the meal is often dull and healthy. She adds no seasoning to her dishes because that would ruin the authenticity of the ingredients. At the dinner table, she stares down each family member to make sure that they not only chew and swallow every single bite, instead of spitting out the meal into their napkins like they desperately want to do; she also expects they will pretend to enjoy the meal with smiles on their faces. Even