Poem Essay War for the soldiers during the time of the book Suicide in the Trenches by Siegfried Sassoon is very harsh and most people do not enjoy it. He shows a very sad side to war which might not be the same for everyone. The book shows how war might seem much different for the people who do not actually have to participate in it, because of the many different things they are involved in that they were never informed about before they left. The first two lines have a lot to say about the whole poem, they are “I knew a simple soldier boy Who grinned at life in empty joy” (1-2) They are saying how there is a innocent young soldier who seemed to be very happy but he was actually just faking happiness. He did not actually want to be at war but he …show more content…
did not tell anyone about his stress. He peacefully slept through the night, but did not want to wake up. He “whistled early with the lark.” (4) This is just showing how he was an innocent and calming young man but he didn't really want to be doing this. When winter came, war became “ cowed and glum.” (5) When this happened, he became depressed and he did not like trench life in the winter.
It also didn’t help that there was “crumps and lice and lack of rum”. (6) The lice made trench life much worse because it was so hard to get rid of them, and they became very painful, because they would just make you want to keep scratching yourself, creating rashed and painful red areas on your skin. Having less rum made him more aware of what was going on around him, and he didn’t seem to like that. Tragically, this man “put a bullet through his brain. No one spoke of him again.” He kills himself then he is forgotten about. He kills himself because of how depressed he is and he doesn’t see it getting any better anytime soon. Also, everything seems to be much worse in winter, so that just makes the problems worse. After he kills himself, he is forgotten about. This is because in war, you are taught not to worry about other people's problems, so once someone dies, it is in your best interest not to worry about them anymore, because you still have a war to fight. This stanza is very discouraging because people should be cared about, especially if they are fighting for your
country. If you are lucky enough to come home from war, life is much worse than what it was like before. The “smug-faced crowds with kindling eye” (9) would only make it worse. Smug-faced means to think you know it all and kindling eye means that the people were excited. These people thought that they knew everything that happened at war, but war is much different than how many people thought it was, you truly had to go to war to know what it was like. The people cheered “when soldier lads march by” (10) showing some sort of gratefulness for the people who fought for their country, and did something that they didn't have to. “Sneak home and pray you’ll never know The hell where youth and laughter go.” (11-12) Life will never be the same for this soldier, and he misses the days where he was young and he enjoyed life. He wants to just go home so he does not have to interact with people. No one will ever truly know what it was like to go to war, unless they have been. The people who died may be forgotten, but they are the reason why the world is the way it is today. I’m sure he was not the only soldier who went through this depression either. Life in the trenches was a very harsh and terrible life.
I would recommend this book to a friend because the reader is able to comprehend different aspects of the war. This novel is written in an upfront style, which makes it easy for the reader to follow along. I am thinking about including something about how war gives soldiers mental disorders for my thesis argument. I would like to write about the mental health of our troops for my research paper. I intend to focus on psychological disorders and mental illness.
As with any genre, all novels termed ‘war stories’ share certain elements in common. The place and time settings of the novels, obviously, take in at least some aspect of at least one war or conflict. The characters tend to either be soldiers or are at least immediately affected by the military. An ever present sense of doom with punctuated moments of peace is almost a standard of the war novel. Beyond the basic similarities, however, each of these battle books stands apart as an individual. Charles Yale Harrison’s World War I novel, Generals Die in Bed is, in essence, quite different than Colin McDougall’s Execution. Coming years earlier, Generals can almost be seen to hold the wisdom one would expect see in an older sibling, while Execution suffers the growing pains that the younger child inevitably feels.
...it may help us arrive at an understanding of the war situation through the eyes of what were those of an innocent child. It is almost unique in the sense that this was perhaps the first time that a child soldier has been able to directly give literary voice to one of the most distressing phenomena of the late 20th century: the rise of the child-killer. While the book does give a glimpse of the war situation, the story should be taken with a grain of salt.
The novel All Quiet On the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the poem, “In Flanders Field,” by John McCrae and the film, Gallipoli, Demonstrates how war makes men feel unimportant and, forces soldiers to make hard decisions that no one should half to make. In war people were forced to fight for their lives. Men were forced to kill one another to get their opinion across to the opposing sides. When men went home to their families they were too scared to say what had happened to them in the war. Many people had a glorified thought about how war is, Soldiers didn't tell them what had truly happened to them.
War has been a constant part of human history. It has greatly affected the lives of people around the world. These effects, however, are extremely detrimental. Soldiers must shoulder extreme stress on the battlefield. Those that cannot mentally overcome these challenges may develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Sadly, some resort to suicide to escape their insecurities. Soldiers, however, are not the only ones affected by wars; family members also experience mental hardships when their loved ones are sent to war. Timothy Findley accurately portrays the detrimental effects wars have on individuals in his masterpiece The Wars.
For many soldiers and volunteers, life on the fronts during the war means danger, and there are few if any distractions from its horrors. Each comradeship serves as a divergence from the daily atrocities and makes life tolerable. Yet, the same bonds that most World War literature romantically portrays can be equally negative. James Hanley’s “The German Prisoner”, shows the horrifying results of such alliances, while “Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemmingway reveal that occasionally, some individuals like Lieutenant Henri seek solidarity outside the combat zone. Smithy of “Not So Quiet” and Paul Baumer in “All Quiet on the Western Front” demonstrate the importance and advantages of comradeship while giving credence to the romance of these connections. Pat Barker’s “Regeneration” depicts Siegfried Sassoon, as an officer who places comradeship and honor above his own personal anti war convictions. Regardless of the consequences, each demonstrates not only the different results of comradeship but also its power and level of importance to each character in the abovementioned writings.
Imagine being in an ongoing battle where friends and others are dying. All that is heard are bullets being shot, it smells like gas is near, and hearts race as the times goes by. This is similar to what war is like. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the narrator, Paul Baumer, and his friends encounter the ideals of suffering, death, pain, and despair. There is a huge change in these men; at the beginning of the novel they are enthusiastic about going into the war. After they see what war is really like, they do not feel the same way about it. During the war the men experience many feelings especially the loss of loved ones. These feelings are shown through their first experience at training camp, during the actual battles, and in the hospital.
World War One or “The War To End All Wars” was one of the most devastating events in the history of humankind. When looking back at such a gruesome war it is understandable that we might dwell on the key battles and tactics, which are often summarized by statistics on death tolls. However, we often forget that statistics create an illusion that warps our perception of death. As Stalin put it “One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is just a statistic”. In the novel “The Wars” by Timothy Findley, the author draws away from traditional war stories by showing a true appreciation for life that truly touches the reader on a human and emotional level. Timothy Findley narrows in something anyone can relate to: a loving mother worried about her son risking his life in a war. This mother in the “The Wars” is Mrs. Ross, who represents the home front while her son, Robert Ross, fights for the British in World War One. As the book progresses and Robert gets further into the death trap known as the “Great War”, Mrs. Ross becomes increasingly obsessive and connected to her son as his fate becomes more clear.
during the war. This novel is able to portray the overwhelming effects and power war has
This reader’s rating for this book is average. It is a very well written book but it may not appeal to some people. If the reader was familiar with the war then this would be a wonderful book to read. This reader thought it was interesting but not as enthralling as it should be. The book was mainly made out of quotes or dialogue from the men in the war. This was a very different way of writing but it was interesting. Many of the veterans had interesting stories to tell and how it felt like to be in the war. Overall it was a book to consider if you’re into war stories.
Throughout their lives, people must deal with the horrific and violent side of humanity. The side of humanity is shown through the act of war. This is shown in Erich Remarque’s novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front”. War is by far the most horrible thing that the human race has to go through. The participants in the war suffer irreversible damage by the atrocities they witness and the things they go through.
From sunrise to sunset, day after day, war demolishes men, cities, and hope. War has an effect on soldiers like nothing else, and sticks with them for life. The damage to a generation of men on both sides of the war was inestimable. Both the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and the poem “I Have a Rendezvous with Death,” by Alan Seeger, demonstrate the theme of a lost generation of men, mentally and physically, in war through diction, repetition, and personification.
It is evident that the occurrence of war throughout history has made a lasting impression on soldiers and civilians alike. This has been expressed over the years through different works of literature. The cost of war to the individual is illustrated in “The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, and “The Shawl” by Cynthia Ozick because each story shows some element of mental, emotional, and physical toll.
The word "war" is always horrible to man especially with who has been exposed to. It is destruction, death, and horrible suffers that has been with all man's life. In the short story "In Another Country", Ernest Hemingway shows us the physical and emotional tolls of the war as well as its long-term consequences on man's life. He also portrays the damaging effects that the war has on the lives of the Italians and even of the Americans.
Sassoon shows many examples of how the soldier in this poem gets pulled back into war-like terrors by meaningless things. The soldier is simply sitting in his home yet gets flashbacks of war and it haunts him. In this poem Sassoon is using a soldier as the example of repression as someone who has experienced war and the impacts it has on life after. “The poetic evolution related directly to Sassoon 's war experiences was initially gradual. His poetry became more serious and evocative in the early days of the war, but continued to inhabit the fatal logic of soldierly glory in poetic uniform” Avi Matalon claims (30). Poetry was influenced greatly by World War I and left poets creating new pieces that they never would have imagined