Literary Analysis Of The Rear Guard, By Siegfried Sassoon

Sassoon’s harsh realistic descriptions of what soldiers witness start the poem with an uncomfortable feeling. The speaker, a soldier in the midst of a battle, is “groping along the tunnel, step by step” (1). When Sassoon describes the speaker as “groping” through the tunnel it

Increasingly convinced that the war had been going on for no fruitful reason, Owen began to write poetry to express the irony of the situation. He set the tone for an entire generation of men and women affected by the war to think and write about the events that had resulted in a blood bath around the world. Owen’s gripping realism is important today because when we read his poetry, we feel as though we are with him on the battlefield, watching as men suffer in a frantic struggle to stay alive. Throughout this essay, I will explore the techniques used by Owen to illustrate the notion of the horror and futility of war.

War Photographer Comparison In War Photographer, the poet portrays that conflict is severe and explores the disastrous effects of it. This is implied through metaphors especially when it describes seeing a man ‘a half-formed ghost’. Remains similarly explores the idea of conflict but shows its lasting effect through similar techniques like repetition as when the poet repeats ‘dozen rounds.’

Throughout their lives, people must deal with the horrific and violent side of humanity. The side of humanity is shown through the act of war. War is by far the most horrible thing that the human race has to go through. The participants in the war suffer irreversible damage by the atrocities they witness and the things they go through. In the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front" is the description by Erich Maria Remarque of the graphic violence and gore and the psychological pain that the average soldier endured on the western front.

Siegfried Sassoon’s Attack and Wilfred’s Owen Anthem for Doomed Youth both deal with inner and outer conflict through the use of figurative language and imagery. Firstly, Anthem for Doomed Youth uses figurative language in the first part of the poem to demonstrate the surroundings that might surround the soldier as he fights on. The “Monstrous Anger of the guns” “stuttering rifles” these are all sounds that surround the soldier as he goes into war.

These are all devices that are vital in portraying the overall theme of the brutality of war, in All Quiet on the Western Front. One of the main literary devices used in All Quiet on the Western Front is imagery. An example of this is when Detering, Paul and, his friends become pale and sick at hearing

“Dulce et Decorum Est” mainly describes the war as harsh, depressing, and fierce. This poem expresses suffering by using harsh connotations of descriptive words like drowning, blood-shod, haunting flares, and devil’s sick of sin to create a tormented mood and tone. This author appeals to the audience with pathos by having depressing stories about the struggles of war. This poem uses similes like “Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud” they use these similes to show how bad it is for the soldiers at that time. This poem also rhymes for example “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks” and “Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs” the word sacks and backs both rhyme.

In one instance, it is used to convey that the mourners believe they should try to prevent such a tragedy from occurring again because of the impact the deaths had on them. For example, in the fourth, stanza it states, “for there we strike by day and by night, / there we kick by day and by night, / there we spit by day and by night / until the doors of hatred fall” the repetition allows the reader to realize that the narrator is frustrated by the war that has caused the militiamen to die. The repetition of “there we…by day and by night” indicates that the mourners are greatly impacted by the militiamen’s deaths because they are willing to take action “by day and by night” to make sure this does not happen again. In addition, repetition is also used to relay how strongly the mourners feel about the loss of the soldiers. They feel “more than anger, more than scorn, more / than weeping,” and the “mothers [are] pierced by anguish and death”.

Wilfred Owen’s poem “Anthem for doomed youth” and Siegfried Sassoon’s poem “Suicide in Trenches” have both used personification and imagery to portray the theme ‘mental and physical pain that the people will get in war’. However, Sassoon has used shift in tone in last stanza whereas Owen’s tone is consistent. Personification is effectively used through Owen and Sassoon’s poem to emphasise and adds different meanings. The second line of first stanza “Only the monstrous anger of the guns”, from ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ (hitherto Anthem) is describing the way the guns’ acting towards human as having a ‘monstrous anger’.

‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ written by Wilfred Owen. In both poems, the poet has described life in the World War One but at different stages of war. ‘Attack’ is a poem that revels the realness and harshness of war while on the other hand ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ revels the horror of war and how unfortunate it is to die in war. For the structure of ‘Attack’, the first six lines describes the vile landscape and the next six lines describes the soldiers as they go over the top. The poet draws a very clear picture of the scene and creates atmosphere while the tension builds up then shows the destruction of war.

In comparison to Dix, Remarque 's All Quiet on the Western Front depicts soldiers who are used to fighting on the front line; forcing them to forget how to adjust into a civilized society considering the horrors they face on a daily basis. Soldiers ' are familiar with their obligations on the front line as opposed to when they enter the real world after the war. Remarque includes a passage in which Paul, the protagonist of the novel, fights against his own conscience, reconnects with human morals, and ultimately concludes that war is real and that he must learn to adapt to it. After Paul stabs a Frenchman, he immediately questions if he would 've committed the killing if it were his loved ones, which uncovers his guilt built up inside of him. The author states, "Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?

In the novel All Quiet on The Western Front, written by Erich Maria Remarque, the constant exposure to war results in devastation. The protagonist Paul Baumer, is amongst soldiers fighting in WWI along the front. A main focus in the novel is the devastating effects that war has on the soldiers who fight in it. Many soldiers are susceptible to constant physical and emotional danger, as they can be obliterated at any given moment. Throughout the story, the soldiers are living on the edge, and uncertainty overwhelms swarms their thoughts.

When a gear has been fully developed and created it is moved from the assembly line into a machine. This machine slowly begins to wear at the gear and degrade it. By the end of its time in the machine, the gear is nearly unrecognizable, rusted and disfigured. Much like a gear and its machine, soldiers are often left unrecognizable by war. In Tim O’Brien’s, The Things They Carried, the author depicts stories from his time in vietnam and his time after.

Although most people enter war because of their own knowledge and patriotic fervor, some enter because of fear, stress, and just simply because they are told to do so. Red Badge soldiers join to save the union, to keep America united. These raw recruits lack the realization of the coming psychological stresses, anxiety, and undesirable conditions they will soon endure. Daniel Weiss says, “The hero’s response to danger, like that of his comrades in arms, will have been conditioned from childhood into patterns of defense and aggression, whose strength and weaknesses will be found out under stress” (19). The soldiers turn to violence; they feel as if they are compelled to take their anger out on the opposing team.

The portrayal of a soldier is the theme that I have been researching. The portrayal of a soldier is to show different characteristics and emotions of soldiers either during war or when they return from war. The four texts I looked at is, the film/movie directed by Ted Kotcheff, “Rambo”, “The Sniper” written by Liam O’Flaherty, “Forrest Gump” directed by Robert Zemeckis and the song, “Goodnight Saigon” written and performed by Billy Joel. These four texts all portray soldiers in either similar or different ways. Two texts that portray soldiers as being fearful are The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty and Rambo directed by Ted Kotcheff.