The Last Night And Disabled Analysis

In the texts ‘The last night’ and ‘Disabled’, The writers use many techniques in which they make the reader feel sympathy towards the characters. The four main ways in which they refer to how the characters are suffering or feeling is the following; pointing out the past and the innocence of use in which they used to have. The nature of war, segregation and how people react to them as a whole. This leads to the outside world and whether they help or just stare. Lastly, how the characters themselves react to the suffering and the torture that is happening to them. The two texts take different perspectives on how the characters depict the loss of what has happened to them, The way the outside world react to them and how they think of them.

The way they are helpless and lifeless creates sympathy as they cannot do anything about it. In Disabled, Wilfred Owen writes “ but not as crowds cheer goal. Only a solemn man who brought him fruits thanked him;” this recalls the image of the football match earlier in the poem. It indicates that he was lifted from the field shoulder-high maybe for winning the game. Here, despite having achieved a lot, for an even bigger loss than a “blood-smeared leg”, the crowd’s reception is more hollow. The words “thanked him” are meaningless and almost sarcastic. The ‘cripple’ just wants to be raised shoulder-high like before and knowing that it may never happen again shows the reader how depressed and how much he regrets going to war. In ‘The Last Night’ the writer uses “stood trembling in a wired-off corner” and “refused to come down” to show how the children are reacting and aware of what is going to happen to them. The use of “stood trembling” shows how the deportees are standing, waiting in fear. Furthermore, it suggests some of the children are aware of what is going to happen to them. It adds to the sympathy and fear the reader is feeling for these

Faulks uses personification to show the terror and trauma of the characters. When he writes, “the bus roared” the reader feels sympathetic towards the characters as the loud noise shocks the people and the reader back into the reality of what is going to happen to them. The inevitable is now happening. In addition, he refers to the buses again when he writes, “A baby of few weeks was being lifted on to the back”. This shows the cruelty of what is happening, No one is spared from the concentration camps, not even the babies. The outside world is portrayed as evil and heartless creatures, ultimately, this creates sympathy towards the characters. However, in Disabled Wilfred Owen refers to the outside world as caring and helpful people. In the poem, he writes, “and put him to bed” to show how much he relies on them and has to wait for the nurses who he doesn't even know. This creates sympathy because without them he is helpless, unwanted. Furthermore, the rhyming scheme in the poem is A, B, A, C, B, C, until it reaches the noun ‘institutes’. This shows the reader that the outside world is so strange and different to everything else in the poem. The noun ‘Institutes’ itself shows that it is not his home, not somewhere he will be comfortable staying in but somewhere that he is with the people who are like him. He doesn’t want this, but he can relate to the people around