The Awful Majesty that Is War Tim O’Brien states in his novel The Things They Carried, “The truths are contradictory. It can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty. For all its horror, you can’t help but gape at the awful majesty of combat” (77). This profound statement captures not only his perspective of war from his experience in Vietnam but a collective truth about war across the ages. It is not called the art of combat without reason: this truth transcends time and can be found in the art produced and poetry written during the years of World War I. George Trakl creates beautiful images of the war in his poem “Grodek” but juxtaposes them with the harsh realities of war. Paul Nash, a World War I artist, invokes similar images in his paintings We are Making a New World and The Ypres Salient at Night. Guilaume Apollinaire’s writes about the beautiful atrocity that is war in his poem “Gala.” The true beauty that war can hold despite its cruel nature is revealed in the poetry written later in the war. Guilaume Apollinaire’s poem “Gala” compares the burst of “two star shells” to a pink rose (5). The rose metaphor carries throughout the poem. …show more content…
Apollinaire extends the metaphor of the rose throughout the poem, comparing its delicate pink flesh to that of “the softer curving of a hip” and “two breasts…lay bare” (7). The comparison of the battle to the rose and ultimately the beauty of a woman serves to glorify battle and justify why so many young boys run off to it, yet the poet does not detract from the horror of war, “where the roses are all killed,” but instead reveals a greater truth about the beauty of battle and the nature of men (23). Apollinaire’s opening stanza, “Skyrocket burst of hardened steel/A charming light on this fair place/These technicians’ tricks appeal/Mixing with courage a little grace” reveals the beauty of those destructive forces of war which can be found in a multitude of artistic mediums from many different countries, spanning many different wars (1-4). Hemingway’s “flashes from the artillery. In the dark of night…like summer lightning” in A Farewell to Arms provides the same image that Nash depicts in his The Ypres Salient at Night, bright flashes across an otherwise clear night sky. The Star Spangled Banner, America’s National Anthem references “the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air/ [which] gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there,” from Francis Scott Key’s experience witnessing the War of 1812 (5-6). O'Brien describes “the illumination of rounds, the white phosphorus, the purply orange glow of napalm, [and] the rocket’s red glare” in Vietnam as “astonishing” (77). The use of colorful imagery to contrast the beauty and horror of war is also developed in Georg Trakl’s “Grodek,” although his takes a different approach on the subject. The color imagery in Trakl’s poem “Grodek” serves to juxtapose the different aspects of war.
“The golden plains/ the deep blue lakes” invoke images of normalcy, of nature, of beauty—gentle reminder to the reader that the world does not stop turning in times of war (2-3). “Red clouds in which an angry god resides” shows the harsher truth of war. Red traditionally symbolizes blood, passion or anger. Red clouds have their own symbolism, representing impending death, troubles or despair. The most poignant color imagery used in “Grodek” is found in line 10, “all roads lead to the blackest carrion.” Black is a color used to symbolize death and the endings of things. The word carrion itself means the decaying flesh of animals, thus creating the most harrowing color image in the
poem. War is harrowing. War is gruesome. War is horrifying. War is inspiring. Paul Nash’s We are Making a New World shows the destructive nature of war juxtaposed with the sun shining over the mountains. War brings chaos. War brings art. War is chaos; it is art. Tim O’Brien creates the image of a solider sitting in a trench looking at an image not so different from Nash’s We are Making a New World, “and although [the solider] must go into the mountains and do terrible things and maybe die, even so, [he finds himself] studying the fine colors, [feeling] wonder and awe at the setting of the sun, and [he is] filled with a hard, aching love for how the world could be and always should be, but is now not” (78). War is responsible for the deaths of innumerable men and women, but past the horrors is an undeniable beauty that is responsible for the birth of innumerable masterpieces to memorialize the “awful majesty” that is war (O’Brien, 77).
Is it true Americans are rightfully notorious for creating inaccurate paradigms of what really happened in historical events Americans are tied to? Has America ever censored historical events in order to protect Americans innocent democratic reputation? After reading, “The Best War Ever” by Michael C.C Adams, I have found the answers to these questions to be yes. Some of the myths that Adams addresses in his book include: 1. America was innocent in world war two and was an ever acting protagonist in the war; 2. World war two or any war for that matter can be, or is a “good war” and bring prosperity to America; 3. War world two brought unity to Americans.
There are many reasons that the human race goes to war against each other. In the essay The Ecstasy of War (1997) by Barbara Ehrenreich, she states that one reason that war is started between men is people want to expand, to move further in life and the man-kind are trained to be ready for war.
The three narratives “Home Soil” by Irene Zabytko, “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl, and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen all have the same feelings of war and memory, although not everyone experiences the same war. Zabytko, Weigl, and Owen used shifting beats, dramatic descriptions, and intense, painful images, to convince us that the horror of war far outweighs the devoted awareness of those who fantasize war and the memories that support it.
This art analysis will define the theme of the universality of 20th century modern warfare in the context of modern works of art by David Levinthal and Roger de la Fresnaye. David Levinthal’s “Untitled” (1972) is commentary on the mass killing of modern warfare in the 20th century, which killed many millions of men during Hitler’s invasion of Europe. Levinthal’s childhood imagery of tanks, soldiers, and homes visualize the mass killing of war as a “universal” concept in the depiction of the modern psyche. Roger de la Fresnaye’s “Artillery” (1911) is also a commentary on cubist imagery that projects a military
For centuries, war has broken families and caused scarring both physical and mental. Consequently, the futility of war has been universally accepted and Bruce Dawes powerful poems ‘Weapons Training’ and ‘Homecoming’ reveal this. Dawe creates an Australian insight to the training and consequences of the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was a long conflict Beginning in 1954 and ending in 1975. More than 3 million people were killed in the tragic War. Dawes ‘Weapons Training’ demonstrates the guidance of an abusive Sergeant whilst ‘Homecoming’ illustrates the shocking consequences and impact of war. Bruce Dawes powerful war poems, paired together, showcase a journey. One filled with harsh and vulgar training whilst the other proves that even training
George Gittoes (b.1949) creates works that that communicate the issue of the graphic horror of war. A social realist painter, photographer and filmmaker, his approach to art is that ‘he layers and accumulates material until, out of apparent chaos, there is a synthesis of idea, passion and image’ (Mendelssohn, 2014). As an eyewitness to the world's war zones, Gittoes clearly uses his work as a means of communication to society.
In the history of modern western civilization, there have been few incidents of war, famine, and other calamities that severely affected the modern European society. The First World War was one such incident which served as a reflection of modern European society in its industrial age, altering mankind’s perception of war into catastrophic levels of carnage and violence. As a transition to modern warfare, the experiences of the Great War were entirely new and unfamiliar. In this anomalous environment, a range of first hand accounts have emerged, detailing the events and experiences of the authors. For instance, both the works of Ernst Junger and Erich Maria Remarque emphasize the frightening and inhumane nature of war to some degree – more explicit in Jünger’s than in Remarque’s – but the sense of glorification, heroism, and nationalism in Jünger’s The Storm of Steel is absent in Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. Instead, they are replaced by psychological damage caused by the war – the internalization of loss and pain, coupled with a sense of helplessness and disconnectedness with the past and the future. As such, the accounts of Jünger and Remarque reveal the similar experiences of extreme violence and danger of World War I shared by soldiers but draw from their experiences differing ideologies and perception of war.
Hicks, Patrick. "War, Literature and the Arts." War, Literature and the Arts. An International Journal of the Humanitie, n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2013. .
During times of war, man is exposed to the most gruesome aspects of life such as death, starvation, and imprisonment. In some cases, the aftermath is even more disastrous, causing posttraumatic stress disorder, constant guilt, as well as physical and mental scarring, but these struggles are not the only things that humans can take away from the experience. War can bring out the appreciation of the little things in life, such as the safety people take for granted, the beauty of nature, and the kindness of others. These universal consequences of fighting all contribute to what war is really capable of doing, sometimes bringing out the best and worst in people, and constantly shaping society. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien goes through this himself when he writes about setting up base camp in the Vietnamese pagoda, the return to site of Kiowa’s death, the story about the old poppa-san guide, and Mitchell Sanders’ “moment of peace”. When O’Brien includes these stories, it is not to insert joy into a tragedy, but rather to create a more wholesome and authentic feel into a tough, realistic war story. O’Brien’s’ “sweet” stories are there to show the hope he had during war, and also serve as a universal example that even in the darkest tunnels, it is always possible to find rays of light.
World War I was a very deadly war with over 100 million human casualties(deaths plus injured). Therefore war is a very transformative event for humanity, because it always affects individuals, societies, and even the world in a pessimistic way.
War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, written by the talented author Chris Hedges, gives us provoking thoughts that are somewhat painful to read but at the same time are quite personal confessions. Chris Hedges, a talented journalist to say the least, brings nearly 15 years of being a foreign correspondent to this book and subjectively concludes how all of his world experiences tie together. Throughout his book, he unifies themes present in all wars he experienced first hand. The most important themes I was able to draw from this book were, war skews reality, dominates culture, seduces society with its heroic attributes, distorts memory, and supports a cause, and allures us by a constant battle between death and love.
World War One was a massive event. It affected millions of people from all walks of life, and inspired countless written pieces. Nevertheless, without being there, it is impossible to truly be able to tell what the war is like. Therefore the use of setting is very important in giving the reader an idea of the circumstance. This is not to say that everyone is in agreement over how the war should be displayed. Quite one the contrary, the two Poems “In Flanders Fields” and “Dulce et Decorum Est” use their settings to create two very contrasting images of human conflict.
The Name of War by Jill Lepore and Anne Orthwood’s Bastard by John Pagan are ideal examples of works detailing historical perspectives or occurrences. The authors utilize two different approaches to narrate these historical occurrences. Jill Lepore uses a macro-history approach whereas John Pagan uses a micro-history approach. However, both authors relay various developments in the American history. Macro-history takes a long approach to present an issue whereas a micro-history utilizes micro topics or several components to reveal a wider theme. This report shows how these approaches have been used by Jill Lepore and John Pagan in their respective works.
‘Poetry can challenge the reader to think about the world in new ways.’ It provokes the readers to consider events, issues and people with revised understanding and perspectives. The poems Dulce Et Decorum Est (Wilfred Owen, 1917) and Suicide in the Trenches (Siegfried Sassoon, 1917), were composed during World War One and represented the poets’ point of views in regards to the glorification of war and encouraged readers to challenge their perspectives and reflect upon the real consequences behind the fabrications of the glory and pride of fighting for one’s nation.
The simple definition of war is a state of armed competition, conflict, or hostility between different nations or groups; however war differs drastically in the eyes of naive children or experienced soldiers. Whether one is a young boy or a soldier, war is never as easy to understand as the definition. comprehend. There will inevitably be an event or circumstance where one is befuddled by the horror of war. For a young boy, it may occur when war first breaks out in his country, such as in “Song of Becoming.” Yet, in “Dulce et Decorum Est” it took a man dying in front of a soldier's face for the soldier to realize how awful war truly is. Both “Song of Becoming” and “Dulce et Decorum Est” are poems about people experiencing the monstrosity of war for the first time. One is told from the perspective of young boys who were stripped of their joyful innocence and forced to experience war first hand. The other is from the perspective of a soldier, reflecting on the death of one of his fellow soldiers and realizing that there is nothing he can do to save him. While “Song of Becoming” and “Dulce et Decorum Est” both focus on the theme of the loss of innocence, “Song of Becoming” illustrates how war affects the lives of young boys, whereas “Dulce et Decorum Est” depicts the affect on an experienced soldier.