A Shared Perspective on War

Since the beginning of humans, some sort of conflict ahs arisen between them. Every culture has had a different take on war. There is however a general consensus that war is necessary. Those who question war are looked upon as deviants. It was hard and is still difficult to appose war now. Rise Against’s song Hero of War and Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est can be compared through the problems with war, the unnecessary glorification of war, and breaking from what society thinks of war. Through both works of art there is a general consensus on the terror of war.

There are many problems with war that are shown in Hero of War. War crimes are a major problem with any war. The American are not above this either. In the Iraq war they committed many atrocities against Iraqi prisoners. Rise Against displays how horrible war crimes are, “They took off his clothes. They pissed in his hands.) This lyric from the song explains that they followed orders and captured this man, but power got to their heads. They tortured this man, who they had taken away from his family. “[They] beat him with guns” over and over again even though he war unarmed and probably innocent.

In World War One the soldiers were not taken care of very well and were made to live in very horrible conditions. In Dulce et Decorum Est Wilfred Owen shows the problems of war through the mustard gas. They all “[fit] the clumsy helmets just in time” except for one soldier who starts to drown in his own fluids. He starts choking and lunging at the other men, but nothing can be done to help him. He is then flung onto a cart and shipped away. There are many problems with this. Not only is there the emotional toll of losing a friend, but also the constant torturing fear that t...

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... a lot of propaganda for people to join the war effort. Poets were describing war as this very noble thing for men to do. Wilfred Owen says that war was not noble at all. He shared his views on war and stayed true to what he believed. He did not follow the masses and write poems about the “great” war.

In conclusion both Rise Against’s Hero of War and Wilfred Owen’s Dolce et Decorum Est show their audiences a different perspective on war, which is more real and graphic. They both also show that war should never be glorified no matter how noble it looks from the outside. Lastly both incorporate the many problems that are faced fro soldiers when they go to war. Rise Against and Wilfred Owen came from different time periods, but they both came out with the same message. Rise Against and Wilfred Owen would tell their audience what war is good for “Absolutely nothing!”