Epitaph On A Soldier Analysis

This very short poem describes a man that is in one moment asleep in his mother’s womb (“from my mother’s sleep I fell into the state”) and the next moment is fighting for his life in the belly of a B-17 or B-24 aircraft only to die suddenly (“Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life”). The fear that is expressed in this poem is the fear of unjust acts becoming justified in war. One should not wash another man’s blood from an aircraft and not feel remorse of pity, but these are the harsh realities of war. The dehumanizing actions of the soldier’s are justified in the case of

The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.

No one returns from war the same person who went. War opens an unbridgeable gap between soldiers and civilians. There’s no truth in war—just each soldier’s experience. “You can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil” (from “How to Tell a True War Story,” in O’Brien’s story collection “The Things They Carried”). Irony in modern American war literature takes many forms, and all risk the overfamiliarity that transforms style into cliché.

Within Liam O’Flaherty’s short story, “The Sniper”, there are two literary devices that greatly impact the meaning of the story. These two literary devices are irony and mood, and together they show the reader how difficult war can be and how it can pull friends and families apart. While reading the text, the reader can feel how tired, lethargic, yet exciting war can be. On page 1, paragraph 3, the sniper was “eating a sandwich hungrily” because he “had eaten nothing since morning”. In this paragraph, readers can feel how the thrill of war can overcome a person, taking over their actions, emotions, and feelings.

A masterpiece in its own right, it reflects a story that illustrates the brave and courageous acts of those who valiantly fought. The soldiers, regardless of which side they represent, pushed through their fear to become men of honor and valor. Many perished and those who survived are cursed to remember it. It reflects the sentiment that “Courage is more than charge; More than dying or suffering. The loss of love in silence or being gallant; It is temperament and, more, wisdom”

More than 5,000 families in the United States, have sedulous relative fighting for our country’s freedom. Many of those families have not the slightest idea of what war is like, and all of its physical and mental effects. The author uses descriptive words to take the reader on a mental voyage. The soldier keeps a conversationalist tone and uses rhetorical strategies such as imagery and rhetorical questions to show how miserable he is living.

In the book Fallen Angels Walter Dean Myers tells the story of soldiers who struggles with a problem involving what is right and wrong in war. Fallen Angels set in Vietnam during the Vietnam war, the story introduces the main character Perry, who faces obstacles, including death and killing. The author’s use of literary devices, specifically imagery, irony, and metaphors convey the theme warfare often forces soldiers to reconsider their traditional notions of right and wrong. The author employs imagery to express the theme that warfare often forces soldiers to reconsider their traditional notions of right and wrong.

The lives of soldiers, Norman Bowker and Curt Lemon, illustrate how the war pressures the human spirit to a standard it can’t resemble. The pressure and responsibilities of lost friends and lost acts of courage heavily weigh Norman Bowker down,

This elegy is ultimately written for all soldiers of war and sends the ironic message that the soilders who have fought against each other and could have killed each other are now all floating on the same coastline receiving equal treatment and being buried with their enemy. The theme of anonymity is extensively portrayed throughout this piece as Slessor constantly refers to ‘unknown’ soldiers or ‘someone’. Slessor uses personification and dehumanization to depict the loss of identity within each of the soldiers and the obscured effects of war to show the continuous movement forward of the world despite losses and victories. Personification is shown in the second stanza, 'Between the sob and clubbing of the gunfire '; the use of this technique ironically emphasises that the guns seem to mourn the loss more than humanity does. This leaves the audience feeling distraught and pity for the soldiers as it gives them a sense of the emotions linked to war.

In the year 1914, a war started that would turn innocent people against each other, and have aftermaths that include thousands of people dead due to new equipment like tanks, gas attacks, and hand-to-hand combat. In this war there was a soldier named Paul Bäumer who is a German nineteen year old who has made friends that will last a lifetime during this experience, but has also felt immense pain. His daily routine is to sleep, eat, and fight in the trenches, and he experiences death every day. Most soldiers view death as a recurring event, but Paul views it as wretchedness, which makes him different from others by caring about his comrades more than others. Paul shows many qualities through this experience of being a soldier in the First World War, and he learns what is necessary in life, which takes some people years to figure out.

Almost all of the chapters in this book are narrated in a unique way. O’Brien emphasizes the theme of shame in his novel. The author uses this word in many different cases, the majority of which are connected to war and its characteristics. O’Brien argues that a soldier’s greatest motivation for going to and staying in the war is a fear of shame, even though many other factors can be considered as well like women.

When faced with war soldiers change, for better or for worse. Modern culture celebrates the glory of patriotic sacrifice. However, this celebration often leaves out the gritty details and trauma of violence behind war and the way it affects people. Homer’s The Odyssey and William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives clearly discuss these details. Both debate the long-awaited return of warriors that went off to fight a war and the way the experience changes the protagonists.

The Voices of War Student Joshua Hosking has a knack for the study of war and poetry and has in the past had a one on one interview with a veteran from the Vietnam War (1954 - 1975). War: it’s a bloody, brutal and cruel experience for all sides. One minute you’re peering out of your trench; then the next, you have a bullet torn through your skull.

Just like the soldiers, we carry love, memories and grief of those who die in the war. The war also depicts the inhumanity involved in that, many commit evils and crimes in the name of war. Through the use of imagery, Tim O'Brien presents graphical descriptions of the reality of war. These descriptions form the lenses through which the reader sees and perceives the stories as the author

Sights you see, events you take part in, people you kill never really seem to leave your conscious and sometimes haunt you. This eats away at the sanity of many soldiers who’ve seen the face of the the fight. Joseph Robertson, a WWII veteran, clearly recalls a time from the war when he killed a young german boy. He described the boy he killed as a “blonde, blue eyes, fair skin, so handsome he was like a little angel(German in the Woods). Joseph, at the age of eighty six, still would wake up during the night crying over the german boy he killed and claimed that specific memory the saddest in his lifetime.