Courage is the ability to act in spite of feeling fear. Through history many people have possessed true courage, such as Martin Luther King Jr., The founding fathers, Ted “The zodiac killer” Cruz, Elizabeth Stanton, etc. All these men and women did what they believe is correct in spite of fear and resistance, even if not believed to be the “moral” position, for everyone’s morals are different. The stories, “Dulce et decorum” and “The charge of the light brigade” exhibit qualities of courage and bravery through their expression of following their ideals and protecting them while feeling fear.
Tim O'Brien's “The Things They Carry,” tells a story about the lives of young men during war. The narrator tells his story from first person, marking all of his adventures and experiences of his companions. O’Brien crafts his piece through the use of repetition, symbolism, and metaphors to convey the idea of physical and psychological hardships of soldiers during war.
Both Dulce et Decorum Est and Mametz Wood present the incompetent results of war. Dulce et Decorum Est indicates the horrible facts and deaths in war. Moreover, Mametz Wood highlights how precious life is and how easily it can be lost as a result of battle.
As a society we look at our soldiers as brave and strong people, who go and fight while living in awful situations, however that wasn’t always the perception of a soldier. During the First World War people thought that going off to war and dying at war were very romantic things. Mothers and girlfriends loves if their young boy signed up to go to war, some even wished that their son or boyfriend would go fight. During this time the war was such a great thing to everyone at home that many poets would write sonnets and poems encouraging the young men to go off to war. These poets however had no idea what the reality of the war was. In the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, by using figurative language, vivid imagery, and a certain diction, he describes the horrific despair that went along with war.
In the Vietnam war, there were many soldiers at war with each other, and most soldiers were not prepared for the fight. In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien was in the Vietnam war when he was young. The book was not in order but he still talks about his experiences while in the war. His purpose for writing this novel was because he wanted younger audience to know what happened in the war and what the soldiers experienced. O’Brien’s intended audience was young people who were not educated about the war and he discussed the themes shame/guilt and mortality/death.
Nostalgia is shown through every stanza showing us that being in a soldier's shoe at the time of the great trench wars of 1914 is not an easy thing. Using this tone brings on a sense of pity corresponding together beautiful. the reader feels sorry for the men losing their sense of humanity, the respect for the dead, and the agony of these men. When talking about a subject like this what needs to be in mind is Owen has been through this himself so he has resentment and anger leading to him using this tone in his work. He feels as if he has not been compensated enough for doing this for his country and seeing his fellow man, including himself, turned into animals. During the stanzas there are certain points where the shift of these tones take on one
Through both of his poems, Dulce Et Decorum Est and Disabled, Owen clearly illustrates his feeling about war. Both of them convey the same meaning that war destroyed people’s lives. For Dulce Et, Decorum Est, it mainly illustrates soldier’s life during war, the dreadfulness of war, whereas, Disabled illustrates how war have damaged soldier’s life. Also, the saying that said that war it is lovely and honorable to die for your country is completely against his point of view. Owen conveys his idea through graphically describing his horrible experiences in war.
O’Brien uses metaphor when he explains how the soldiers carried more weight as we see most of the major characters carry fear and guilt in their hearts. It becomes a burden whose weight lasts in history. The physical objects and weapons symbolize the nature of war and immediately the reader is able to tell that the mood and the tone of the story is sad and anxious. The fact that some characters in the story took tranquilizers to calm down their nerves clearly shows that, the war period was depressive to the soldiers. The soldiers blame themselves for the death of their counterparts. 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
Through O’Brien’s repetition and use of similes, he delivers the effects of war to the readers. Making their way to the sea, the platoon acted a particular way to avoid being seen by the enemy, “slowly in the dark, single file, not talking, like sheep in a dream they passed through” (O’Brien 262.) War makes one heedful of death. O’Brien’s simile shows the readers that war makes us more cautious of our surroundings. Moving
One of the strongest tools an author can use to strengthen his or her writing are literary devices. Literary devices allow authors to express their meaning in a creative way and produce a certain reaction from the reader. These devices are a main reason why many consider literature an art, as they help authors convey their messages in a more expressive way that goes beyond simple words. The effective use of stylistic devices is a clear sign of a well-crafted and impactful literary work. The Things They Carried, a mostly fictional novel written by Tim O’Brien about soldiers’ experiences in the Vietnam War, demonstrates how authors can target the reader in a particular way through the use of literary techniques. O’Brien uses a variety of these
America’s war heroes all have the same stories to tell but different tales. Prescribed with the same coloring page to fill in, and use their methods and colors to bring the image to life. This is the writing style and tactic used by Tim O’Brien in his novel, “The Things They Carried”. Steven Kaplan’s short story criticism, The Undying Certainty of the Narrator in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, provides the audience with an understanding of O’Brien’s techniques used to share “true war” stories of the Vietnam War. Kaplan explains the multitude of stories shared in each of the individual characters, narration and concepts derived from their personal experiences while serving active combat duty during the Vietnam War,
Many poems about the civil war convey universal themes of the time. Stephen Crane’s poem “War is Kind” is no different. The poem,“War is kind” written by Stephen Crane(1871-1900) has three themes common to civil war literature: Warfare, Home, and Patriotism. This poem’s overall theme is about how war destroys families conversely to the title of “War is Kind” or the many times which Crane says “War is Kind”. The three themes of warfare, home, and patriotism are displayed in many pieces of Civil War literature consequently making them the universal themes.
The poem, “Dulce Et Decroum Est” is a powerful anti-war poem set in World War 1 that uses dramatic imagery, diction, a unique type of rhyme and rhythm, and symbolism in the structure to show how harsh war is and not the glamor it is made out to be. To understand the poem we must first understand the title. “Dulce et Decorum Est” is a Latin title that is taken from the Roman poet Horace and means "it is sweet and honorable...” followed by pro patria mori, which means "to die for one 's country”. Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” is one of the most famous poems from the “soldier-poets” who fought in the World War 1In 1917, Owen was diagnosed with “shell shock”, commonly known as post-traumatic stress disorder, and was granted a reprieve from the
The poem features a soldier, presumably Owen, speaking to fellow soldiers and the public regarding those atrocities. Correspondingly, drawing on the themes of innocent death and the barbaric practices of warfare, Owen expresses his remorse towards his fallen comrades and an antagonistic attitude towards the war effort through a solemn tone and specific stylistic devices. The poem is structured as free verse, contributing towards the disorganized and chaotic impression Owen experienced while witnessing these deaths firsthand, enabling the audience to understand the emotional circumstances of demise in the trenches as well. Throughout the poem, Owen routinely personifies the destructive weapons of war, characterizing them as the true instruments of death rather than the soldiers who stand behind them. Owen describes how, “Bullets chirped…Machine-guns chuckled…Gas hissed…” (Owen 3,4,15). Personifying the weapons demonstrates how pure soldiers have their innocence stolen from them through forced and blind usage of such deadly instruments. Accordingly, it is the weapons who truly receive the last laugh in the war as they kill both physically and spiritually, while soldiers are forever wounded in ways that can and cannot be seen.
‘Dulce et Decorum est’ is a poem written by Wilfred Owen between the years 1917 and 1918. It describes the life on the battlefield and how it impacted the life of the soldiers. Owen most likely used his first hand experiences from when he was a soldier in World War 1. This poem describes the soldiers personal perspectives of war using the bare naked truth, not glorifying it in anyway.