What Is The Tone Of The Red Battles Of Slaughter By Thomas Whitman

The purpose of this essay is to compare the of Wendell Berry’s essay, “The Failure of War”, Dorianne Laux’s poem, Staff Sgt. Metz and Damon Winter’s photograph of Sgt. Brian Keith. All three of these pieces represent the controversial issue of War which is a topic for a argumentative piece. In two of the written pieces the writer acknowledges the opposition, however, the picture the opposition is implied. Each piece has a purpose aimed at an audience with an emotional appeal.

Through “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” the soldiers standing, watching as everything goes on around them, are not able to stop what is happening. The soldiers represent the unforgiving nature of war.

This passage helps the reader understand how the emotional burden of uncertain death weighed on the soldier. However, it also acts as a symbol by giving light to the fact that the emotional baggage they carry was brought about by their own fear of humiliation and shame. Many of the soldiers are there only to avoid the persecution that ensued those who evaded the draft. Through the use of symbolism, O’Brien is able to effectively highlight the burdens faced by the soldiers who conformed to the expectations of society.

No emphasis is even placed on why a conflict exists, or necessarily how it is perpetuated, but if the movement of troops is a triviality borne from an immature squabble, then it does not suggest a positive outcome for the already ragged, world-weary Yossarian and his companions. The motif of ambition is further emphasised through Colonel Cathcart, as it is described that “he [detects that generals] weren’t impressed either, which made him suspect that perhaps sixty combat missions were not nearly enough and that he ought to increase the number at once to seventy, eight, a hundred, or even two hundred, three hundred, or six thousand!” (Heller) Three key, damning details stand out here. First, the missions unequivocally put the serving mens’ lives at risk, and for Cathcart to feel that that is his ticket to success is in terrible suggestion that the American military bureaucratic system cares less about the lives of its men, and more how they are used.

Since the beginning of time, humans have sought after power and control. It is human instinct to desire to be the undisputed champion, but when does it become a problem? Warfare has been practiced throughout civilization as a way to justify power. Though the orders come directly from one man, thousands of men and women pay the ultimate sacrifice. In Randall Jerrell’s “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner”, Jarrell is commenting on the brutality of warfare. Not only does Jarrell address the tragedies of war, he also blames politics, war leaders, and the soldier’s acknowledgement of his duties. (Hill 6) With only five lines of text, his poems allows the reader to understand what a soldier can go through. With the use of Jerrell’s poem, The Vietnam War, and Brian Turner’s “Ameriki Jundee”, the truth of combat will be revealed.

Device Quote Explanation Metaphor “Bullets of princes” - Europe line 23 Here Whitman uses the metaphor of the princes to compare the Americans to children. He often speaks of the authority as the kings, and in calling the Americans princes, the sons of kings, he is calling them immature for fight. Whitman is a pacifist and uses this metaphor to support the theme that the immature can fight, it takes true maturity to settle ones’ differences because, children are immature therefore children argue and fight. which is why he compares the adults children, to emphasize that the civil war is an unnecessary chaos and can be resolved peacefully.

In the poem Charge of the Light Brigade Alfred Lord Tennyson utilizes repetition, personification, and diction to present how it is to be in battle and how it can impact people. In this poem Tennyson explains how the Battle of Balaclava

In the poem “O Captain! My Captain!” Whitman compares the Civil War to a trip. “...our fearful trip is done” (1). The Civil War was one of the nations scariest wars. It was scary to the nation because no matter who won we were losing as a unit. During the war no matter who won the country was losing lives because every single soldier in the war was from the U.S.A. If the south won the nation hurt because they would secede and slavery was still intact, if the north won the nation was not as badly hurt but we still lost countless lives but ended slavery and secession. It could also be compared to a trip because what people thought was going to last a day if that lasted almost 5 years. In conclusion Whitman’s metaphor depicted the Civil War exceptionally.

Since the emergence of written history, many fables regarding war have encompassed a significant portion of prosodic literature. Two of the foremost war poets of the 19th and 20th century—Emily Dickinson and Rupert Brooke—have both written about profound implications of war on society and also upon the human spirit albeit in two very different styles. The book, Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, theorizes through Allie, that Emily Dickinson was indubitably the superior war poet. Furthermore, when we analyze their works as well, we realize the invariable fact that Dickinson’s work delves into war with a much more holistic approach as well. She not only honours the soldiers for their valiant efforts, but also deftly weaves notions of liberty and civilian duty in regards to war as well as compared to Rupert Brooke who carried a romanticized imagery of martyrs within his poetry. In summation, Emily Dickinson is a superior war poet for her incisive analysis of death, and human nature in correspondence to war as compared to the patriotic salvos of Rupert Brooke’s poetry.

Also complimenting each other are their ideas of great men throughout history. Emerson says, "No greater men are than ever were, a singular equality may be observed between the great men of the first and last years" while Whitman proclaims "Births have brought us richness and variety…I do not call one greater and one smaller, That which fills it's period and place is equal to any." However, while Emerson feels that what great men have in common is the courage to listen to their own individuality and to be the first to express an idea, Whitman sees all men as contributing greatness to one another.

One of the most interesting dynamics of any cold war is perhaps its very existence, as difficult to point out as its predicament. The very idea of war associates itself with a certain traditional idea of glory but in the case of cold warfare, this glory is subtle: show of confidence and force is a matter of pride in war, but when served cold, the ‘show’ must be missing in action. As Martin McCauley says in Russia, America and The Cold War, cold warfare is nothing but a state of conflict between nations without direct military or political action but pursued primarily through the use of proxy wars waged by surrogates. Going by this definition, it would be interesting to look at the poetry of Walt Whitman and his “successor” Sherman Alexie, as embodying the very spirit of cold warfare. The reason why I very carefully and deliberately use the term “successor” is to denote the common themes of nativity, belonging and culture that the two great poets talk about. Although Alexie is openly appreciative of his predecessor, both are, strangely enough, two different nations within a nation; both are inherently political and both somehow embody a “struggle-for-the-microphone”: a term I shall

There comes a time when we have to make amends through different points in our lives. In Walt Whitman’s “Reconciliation” he makes a perfect point of how to restore differences with peace. However, the title is self-explanatory to the main aspect Whitman is trying to convey his amends to this former enemy. Whitman’s final words in his last stanza “I bend down, and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.” He realizes through the imagery he draws toward his enemy that it’s unfortunate he’s too late. Moreover, through the amends of himself and an old war mate. Whitman says “a man as divine as myself” by comparing them as one because they both served for the same country and cause. Whitman’s ultimate truth to what he’s trying to

It is difficult to challenge the purity and spirituality of the feelings Whitman and Doyle had for each other. Many cant figure out what was between them. “There can be no doubt that these feelings transcend those usual to friends or companions of the same sex” (Allen 25). Whitman was a homosexual and many of his poems relate to manly love. “To the serious reader of Calamus, the ‘manly love’ that recurs both as a term and as an idea is of such genuine poetic complexity as to render it a good deal more than ‘abnormal’ and considerably less than ‘deficient’”(Canby 124).

In Walt Whitman’s poem, “The Wound Dresser,” the moments expressed throughout take place during the Civil War and are experienced by an old, devoted wound-dresser. The poem begins with the wound dresser having to make a choice on whether he should tell a group of children what he went through “or silently watch the dead” (17). Through the poem, the narrator captures the internal struggles he faces when dealing with a numerous amount of wounded soldiers day by day while at the same time trying to do his job. It is when the narrator is having these inner struggles that the poem distinctively uses punctuation and diction to fully capture unforgotten flashes imbedded in the mind of the narrator.

that I believe revieled the most about Whitman’s attitude and beliefs. In “Song of Myself”