Critical Appreciation of Herbert Read's My Company
The poem "My Company" by Herbert Read communicates a perception of war
which was characteristic of Great War Literature as a whole. It is
evident that Herbert Read used poetry as a way of expressing and
communicating his ideas about the war. As Rivers, a psychologist in
the novel "Regeneration" notes: "horror and fear were the inevitable
reponses to the trauma of war." The poet uses lexical choice, form,
imagery, repetition, rhythm and tone in order to convey his
perceptions of war and in doing so maintains a distinct individuality.
Through lines one to thirty-four of the poem, the poet conveys the
idea of unity between the men through the use of lexical choice. The
idea that the men "became….a body and a soul" working together as one.
This image is further enhanced by the idea that the men "fought
together" and were united in the sense of being "compact" and
"unanimous". There is a sense of pride and thankfulness from the poet
in the oneness of his men that is depicted through the words, "I have
felt the pride of leadership." Furthermore the image of pride is
further enhanced through the words:
"one day I stood eminent
and I saw you gather'd round me
uplooking
and about you a radiance that seemed to beat
with variant glow and to give
grace to our unity."
The use of epithets such as "radiance" and "glow" suggest
understanding and a platonic love between the men and their company
commander. This idea is prevalent in "Birdsong" by Sebastian Faulks as
Stephen "was appalled at the idea of being separated from his men. He
despised the war but he wanted t...
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...ics of Great War Literature. Vera
Brittain's thoughts further highlight the emptiness and the futility
of war that has been depicted through many poets and writers alike:
"It is impossible to look with any satisfaction on the thought of
25,000 Germans being left to mutilation and decay; the destruction of
men as though beasts whether they be English, German or anything else
seems a crime against the whole of civilisation." It is perhaps
Herbert Read's final image that has the greatest significance for
today's generation and this is expressed through the words, "Your
entire soul is standing up in my body." Today one would think of
Laurence Binyon and the words he wrote in 1914, "We will remember
them." Herbert Read's intention would appear to be to live his mens'
lives through his own and to never let them be forgotten.
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.
Money Well Spent by Michael Grabell is a book about Michael Grabell posing one crucial question about The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was the largest economic recovery plan in history. The $825 billion package known as “the stimulus” was five times more expensive than the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Moreover, the recovery plan cost well over a trillion dollars. In addition, one question Michael Grabell posed to himself: was the taxpayers’ money well spent? Therefore, to get his answers he followed the progression of the stimulus projects across the country, scrutinizing how reality and spin often collided.
"This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war."
There exist only two types of people in a time of war and crisis, those who survive and those who die. Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night shows how Elie, himself, faces difficult problems and struggles to survive World War II. Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, tells a story about a young soldier thinking of himself before others during World War I. The poem “Mary Hamilton” shows how a mother killed her child so she would not get into trouble. Sir John Harrington writes about a sad truth in the poem “On Treason”; the poem reflects humanity’s selfish tendencies during tough times. When people face difficult times they often care about only one person, themselves; the need to survive clouds people’s moral and judgment.
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.
The future is viewed as a place of wonder, amazement, and prosperity. Ray Bradbury takes those aspects and forms a society of control, technology, and conformity in the novel Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury based those aspects off of World War II and the cold war which sparked a time of change and conflict for many citizens. Fahrenheit 451 bases its themes off of the conflicts going on in the 1950s by presenting a critical view point of the social and political systems. Fahrenheit 451 follows Guy Montag, a firefighter, and his struggle with society promoting his overall change of opinion. Through his contemplation of the good of his society, Montag metamorphosizes based on his interactions with his environment. Bradbury was able to create a conflicting
In the passage, “The Jacket” by Gary Soto, Gary writes about a boy with an awful jacket that he despises. The passage uses literary elements to give the passage an interesting twist.
There was a drastic change in Paul’s mindset when he came home for his break. For example, he lied to Franz’s mother about his death. He said he had a quick death, but in reality, Franz had a slow and painful death. As a result of the war many soldiers also gave up on their beliefs as well. An example of this is seen in the film when Josef Behm, one of the young men participating in the war, dreamt of becoming a reverend. However, even if he survived the war, the images of blood and murder would still appear vividly in his mind. These memories and experiences totally contradict the principles in which a reverend or minister would believe in or live by. Wilfred Owen was an individual who had similar experiences to Paul Baumer in the war. In his poem “Mental Cases”, he states “These are the men whose minds the Dead have ravished. Memory fingers in their hair of murders, multitudinous murders they once witnessed.” All of the brutal murders that these soldiers witnessed have shaped their minds for the rest of time. Physically, these individuals will eventually heal. However these painful memories of blood, agony, and cries will stay very graphic in the minds of the soldiers, as if they occurred the day before. Siegfried Sassoon is a former English soldier who is known for his angry and compassionate poems regarding the first world war. Sassoon’s poem “The Poet As Hero” describes the minds of the soldiers and what their opinion was on the war and the casualties. He states “But now I 've said good-bye to Galahad, and am no more the knight of dreams and show: for lust and senseless hatred make me glad, and my killed friends are with me where I go” In other words before he experienced all of the tragedies, he was a pure and loving individual. However, after he has gone through all of the sorrow and grief that
People isolate themselves from information in this world to protect themselves and the society as a whole, but in the case of the book they take it to the extreme. The book Fahrenheit 451 shows that individuals or society shouldn’t isolate themselves from information when it could be useful.
Bradbury's point of view justifies that people need to realize books are important and need to be acknowledged. Books give us information we may not even think we need for our future selves, in reality we do need this information. "we all know the silly things we've done for a thousand years and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, someday we'll stop making the funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them we pick up a few more people that remember, every generation" (Lenhoff, 2). This passage suggests that the history of books can help us acknowledge what has happened in history and to not be making the same mistakes, to have a better outcome in the future. The information in books make people recognize what is in them and how it can help a person become someone better. "Books represent individualism, reason, and quality of information: they "show the pores in the face of life"" (Bradbury, 1).
Ray Bradbury, the author of the literary classic Fahrenheit 451, first published in 1953, tells of the disturbed world that Guy Montag, a fireman, lives in. In a world where reading is illegal and the firemen burn the books, Montag swiftly discovers that people of his city are living blind to the reality around them. Bradbury constructs the dystopian society in Fahrenheit 451 through the use of themes such as censorship and oppression of individual thought, focusing predominantly on the causes such as technology, conformism, and totalitarian governments in a corrupt society.
“Remember when we had to actually do things back in 2015, when people barely had technology and everyday life was so difficult and different? When people read and thought and had passions, dreams, loves, and happiness?” This is what the people of the book Fahrenheit 451 were thinking, well that is if they thought at all or even remembered what life used to be like before society was changed.
‘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 government inflicts the same ideas on everyone. The absence of original thought thus hinders society’s ability to develop.
According to MailOnline, having lots of friends in real-life, and on social networks, can ultimately make people less sociable, and increase sadness. A lot of people in today's society might consider themselves happy but are actually the opposite. Having a lot of friends makes people feel like they don't need to be an extrovert and can eventually cause them to become unhappy. In the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the same problem is present in the futuristic society. Almost all of the people in the book are either always on some sort of device or they are so consumed in the robotic society that they never take the time to think about things. This causes a lot of the characters in the book to be discontent, but not all. There are still a few that do take the time to think about things and are not always on a device.