Dulce Et Decorum Est Response

Another reason why war is a transformative event is because it gets rid of any misconceptions about warfare by showing individuals the reality of the situation. In the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, the poet summarizes his experiences in war, and expresses his feelings about it. Throughout the poem, the reader can feel Owen’s hatred for the war by his use of many examples of negative imagery, and his feelings are most easily conveyed by the last lines, which read “The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est/Pro patria mori”(Owen 27-28). Owen’s poem expresses his thoughts on how being quixotic, and not asking important questions as a soldier can have very dire consequences. The soldiers believed what they were told about war, which was that war is like a fairytale, and they never bothered asking any questions as to how their elders knew

that, which led to them experiencing something they had never anticipated. The horrible events mentioned in the poem such as “guttering, choking, [and] drowning” tell us what the poet, and countless other soldiers had to go through, and how they were affected by the lies told to them (Owen 16).

Supporting an event or action without understanding its effect can have an extremely devastating outcome, especially if it concerns different nations. It is important to think about the results that a specific incident can result in before jumping right into it. Supporting a cause without knowing any details can have various side effects on the people involved, and in the case of war, it can lead to soldiers not being able to handle the truth about their existence as fighters. In the novel, The World of Yesterday by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, the author writes about the excitement that his fellow Austrians felt about the idea of going to war. The Zweig writes that the others “saw [war] in the perspective of their school readers and of paintings in museums” (Zweig). Many countries throughout the world had not gone through any sort of combat in a very long time, so they had no idea what type of situation it

was. They believed what was in the books passed down to them by their ancestors, because they had no other means of knowing the truth. This led to everyone supporting the war based on false information, and many people lost their lives due to inaccurate depictions of an event that should never be glorified. By looking at the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est”, and the novel The World of Yesterday, it is distinguishable that in both cases, people were unclear of the truth behind war. In the poem, we see how the truth about combat impacts the lives of soldiers by showing them the truth about war, and in the novel, we see how naive people are before conflict strikes because they are not aware of the consequences behind it. Therefore, another reason why war is a life-changing event is because it shows people the true nature of combat and clarifies any misinterpretations.
In conclusion, after looking at the novels All Quiet on the Western Front, and The World of Yesterday, along with the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est”, and the propaganda posters “Tell that to the Marines” and “Freiheit Der Meere”, it is easy to comprehend that a few parallels exist. These resemblances are that war is a transformative event because it brings depression to the lives of innocent people, it creates unnecessary tension between countries, and it gets rid of any previous misconceptions about war. If Serbia and Austria-Hungary had spent some more time discussing the the compensations that Austria-Hungary was asking for due to the assassination of their leader, then maybe they could have come to an agreement. If these two nations had come to a compromise, then millions of soldiers would not have lost their lives. The people on this Earth have gone through 2 World Wars so far, many of whom are still alive and yet there is still speculation of a third one. There are also numerous people on this Earth who have been alive during the era of World War 2 (1939-1945), and they believe that World War 3 will be the end of humanity because armies will use nuclear weapons. It is important for people to realize that these conflicts are only going to cause more problems than the amount that they solve. Wars will create more enemies than they will create allies. Individuals should use less amounts of hostility and force, and more knowledge of previous events to solve international conflicts.