Analysis Of The Trader's War

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Socialist John Reed was against the United States of America to be involved in the treacherous World War I. In “The Trader’s War,” Reed comments on Hitler’s condescending ideals of wanting to create an even bigger capitalist country. However, as Reed dislikes what is going on with Germany, he also opposes of the U.S in taking part of the war. America’s reasons of taking part of the war was to fight for democracy with the French. “More nauseating than the crack-brained bombast of the Kaiser is the editorial chorus in America which pretends to believe—would have us believe—that the White and Spotless Knight of Modern Democracy is marching against the Unspeakably Vile Monster of Medieval Militarism,” (pg 76). In this passage, Reed is also commentating …show more content…

“No, I never had any experience in nursing,” said one; “but one just nurses, doesn’t one?” (pg 139). This quote would give readers an idea of what kind of aid that was given to the injured. The inexperienced nurses do not have proper training in safety and may cause the injured to only get worse. This would then lead to infectious diseases, such as smallpox, scarlet fever, diphtheria and more. “ Smallpox, scarlet fever, scarlatina, diphtheria rated along the great roads and in far villages, and already there were cases of cholera, which was sure to spread with the coming of the summer in the that devastated land; where battle fields, villages, and roads stank with lightly buried dead, and the streams were polluted with the bodies of men and horses,” (pg 143). Thus this would cause readers to have a negative view on the war due to lack of trained nurses and infectious diseases spreading. Continuing the journey, John Reed goes through a horrid of corpse. In “The Valley of Corpses,” he travels through the country and sees the Serbian and Austrian dead in the trenches. “We walked on the dead, so thick were they—sometimes our feet sank through into rotting flesh, crunching bones.” For around six miles, thousands of dead bodies laid on the floor with their skins rotting away and the air reeking of the dead. Due to the war,

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