As a source of history, Testament of Youth provides the reader with a firsthand account of a generation deeply affected by war. World War I was the first all out, brutal war the world had experienced. It had such a detrimental and lasting impact on Vera Brittain that she wrote Testament of Youth to educate generations to follow on the senseless waste of human lives caused by war. In Testament of Youth, Brittain reveals how the gender roles of the 1900’s created various differences in experience between men and women. Testament of Youth is an argument against war through Brittain’s firsthand account of the tragedies and loss that it created in hopes that history does not repeat itself.
The gender roles displayed in Testament of Youth showed that women had gained more independence than they had before, but still had more constraints than men. The independence they gained was not given willingly;
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They are celebrating the fact that it’s over, but it is not a cause for celebration to her. To her no one should be celebrating because it is a period of mourning.
At this point, Brittain comes to the realization that war is harmful to the men who fight in it, the people they leave behind and civilization as a whole. She states,
“…the organ swelling forth into a final triumphant burst in the song of victory, after the solemn and mournful dirge over the dead, I thought with what mockery and irony the jubilant celebrations which we hail the coming of peace will fall upon the ears of those to whom their best will never return, upon whose sorrow victory is built, who have paid with their mourning for the others’ joy.”
To Brittain it’s ironic to call it peace if it was gained through bloodshed and violence. The costs of war are too high. Brittains view of war after it is over has completely changed her. This change in her is comparable to the views of Siegfried Sassoon that the war was “futile, meaningless, and a tragic
For instance, she provides perspectives from William Chafe and Karen Anderson, who believe that the war accelerated women into the labor force, and contrasts it with the perspective of Leila Rupp, who states that the war had no impact on this. In addition, she also compares perspectives of the images of women during the war, providing perspectives from Freidan, who argues that the images during World War II were committed to following a dream, while comparing it to Leila Rupp, who argues that this image had urged workers to let women into male jobs while accepting them. Continuing from this, Honey provides one more set of perspectives from Karen Anderson and Susan Hartmann, who argue that, as the war began to end, the focus and stress on family roles became highly valued in order to promote the family, as society was readjusting. This indicates that Honey is utilizing other historian’s perspectives
The outcomes of war can sometimes be positive and sometimes negative. In My brother Sam is Dead the authors, James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, are trying to tell you that war can be good like Patriots fighting for our freedom. Since WWII had already passed we get the advantage of knowing that the patriots won and gained freedom. However at the time people didn’t know if their sacrifices will be actually worth it. War shouldn't be considered a mandatory action even if we may win because there’s still the lives being taken because of it, children killed by men with guns in their hands.
All is Lost in War Before World War I, war was glorified and many a young boy hoped of becoming a soldier. After World War I, war had been given a new darkness of scarring memories from veterans of the debacle. All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque, and In the Field, by Tim O’Brien, help shed the light on this shade that looms over war now. In All Quiet on the Western Front and In the Field, common themes of lost generation and horrors of war are present in a bold fashion.
Also, it will prove how women’s lives were affected and how their lives had changed after the experiences throughout the war, therefore wanting to keep their newfound independence . The focus of this investigation however
In conclusion, the author, Kathleen Ernst, talks about how women’s lives changed from before the civil war, and after the civil war. In the beginning of the passage, before the civil war, the author states that women were only good for tending the wounded and taking care of the babies and children. However towards the end of the passage, after the civil war, she tells that women were given new opportunities because of the independence that the war
From being Rosie the Riveter, an integral part of the United States victory in World War II to women who should “do their duty” by returning to their homes, where they could serve their husbands and “repopulate the ranks” (Women 's History in the U.S. | National Woman 's Party). This was the social setting for women after the war, one that did not sit well with the feminist movement. The revolutionary women in this discriminatory time fought for their right to express their sexuality without hypocritical judgement from others, the right to choose their own destiny for their own lives, the right to self and to discover who they are as an individual and not as a gender and not how to be a perfect housewife as they were taught but how to be themselves.
Even some women would go so far to gather money to put clothes on the soldier’s back or sew their clothes. Others would travel with the men, whether it is camp followers, who were women who washed, cooked, nursed, sew, gather supplies, and even in some cases be sex partners or spies. Women dressed up as men and changed their name to fight as a soldier, or General’s wives who just wanted to be with their husbands like Martha Washington or Caty Greene. Not only do we see the point of the war through the women’s eyes that resisted British rule, but also from the eyes of Frederika von Residesel whose husband, Fritz Residesel, who fought for Britain. Indian women also felt the effects of the war, because they thought that “if America won their social roles would be changed and their power within their communities diminished” (Berkin.107).
War may bring freedom and prosperity, but not without the cost of killing the innocent and bringing misery and sorrow into the
Millions of people have gone through life-altering experiences in their time in World War I. In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Bäumer, a 19-year-old German soldier, narrates his personal memoirs of this war. He describes the mental change and suffering he goes through as he is forced to mature from a young boy to a soldier in order to survive, leaving him permanently scarred from the throes of war. By employing juxtaposition to contrast Paul’s mindset, before and after the war, Remarque demonstrates how the mental health of the World War I soldiers is damaged because of the abrupt loss of their youth, leaving them in a state of survival and mental instability.
Although All Quiet on the Western Front and “A Warrior’s Moral Dilemma” focus on different time periods, they both exemplify how the horrors of war negatively affect the soldier’s mind
War is a harsh reality that is inflicted upon the unwilling through the “need” of it’s predecessors and those whom wish it. All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is about 19 year old Paul and his friends in the “Second Company”. Even though they are just out of school age, they have already seen things that many could not bear to even think about. Eventually, all of his friends die, and even Paul too, dies. Remarque uses diction and syntax as literary devices to express his anti-war theme, or lesson.
Throughout the ages, wars have wreaked havoc and caused great destruction that lead to the loss of millions of lives. However, wars also have an immensely destructive effect on the individual soldier. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, one is able to see exactly to what extent soldiers suffered during World War 1 as well as the effect that war had on them. In this essay I will explain the effect that war has on young soldiers by referring to the loss of innocence of young soldiers, the disillusionment of the soldiers and the debasement of soldiers to animalistic men. Many soldiers entered World War 1 as innocent young boys, but as they experienced the full effect of the war they consequently lost their innocence.
War has developed into such an unavoidable part of life that we repeatedly overlook or neglect its outcome on adolescent’s minds. Even though millions of children all around the world endure pain from the psychological repercussion of armed conflict, thousands of others reluctantly partake in the same and are damaged for a lifetime. Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier describes the condition of these children as this: “When children are subjected to war whether by witnessing atrocities, forced into a life of violence or becoming victims of the countless suffering brought about by war, they are not only traumatized, psychologically and physically damaged, but they lose faith in their own humanity, their ability to be children again, to trust,
As Herbert Hoover eloquently put it, “Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.” War has no mercy. It takes homes, tears families apart, and steals childhoods from innocent people. Such is the case in A Separate Peace, by John Knowles.
In All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque exposes the reality of war by refuting the idea of the “Iron Youth,” revealing the mistreatment of soldiers, and showing the critical effects war imprints on them. When any war begins, young men are always the first ones to be sent into the war zones. To clarify, older generations believe young adults are the best options for fighting; these boys are strong, full of energy, and do not have anything to lose. “The chief source of this pro-war ideology were the older men of the nation: professors, publicists, politicians, and even pastors” (Literature and Its Times).