Реферат: The Delusive Glory Of War Essay Research
Название: The Delusive Glory Of War Essay Research Раздел: Топики по английскому языку Тип: реферат |
The Delusive Glory Of War Essay, Research Paper Many of the young officers who fought in the Great War enlisted in the army with glowing enthusiasm, believing that war was played in fancy uniforms with shiny swords. They considered war as a noble task, an exuberant journey filled with honor and glory. Yet, after a short period on the front, they discovered that they had been disillusioned by the war: fighting earned them nothing but hopelessness, death and terror. They had lost their lives to the lost cause of war, which also killed their innocence and youth. They were no longer boys but callous men. Wilfred Owen?s poem ?Dulce et Decorum Est?, Pat Barker?s novel Regeneration, and Erich Maria Remarque?s All Quiet on the Western Front, all portray the irony between the delusive glory of war and the gruesome reality of it, but whereas Owen and Sassoon treat the theme from a British point of view, Remarque allows us to look at it from the enemy’s. The poem ?Dulce et Decorum Est?, an anti-war poem by Wilfred Owen who was an English footsoldier, states that it is not sweet and fitting to die a hero?s death for a country. Right off in the first line, Owen describes the troops as being ?like old beggars under sacks? (1). This metaphor indicates that the men are battle weary and suggests reluctance. They also have been on their feet for days and appear to be drained of youth as they ?marched asleep? (5) and ?limped on, blood-shod? (6). Overall, in the first stanza, Oundjian 2 there seems to be a tension between old and young because it shows how the impact of an endless war has reduced these once energetic young men to the point where they could be referred to as ?old? (1), ?lame? (6) and ?drunk with fatigue? (7). In the second stanza and at the beginning of the third, Owen makes a gruesome portrayal of a gas attack that painfully expresses desperation, suffering, and powerlessness. He uses ?An ecstasy of fumbling? (9) to describe the men grasping for their gas masks during the attack. The fact that ?ecstasy? is used with ?fumbling? is surprising and disturbing but suggests the difference between the society?s beliefs about the war and the actuality of it. Images such as ?flound?ring like a man in fire or lime?? (12), ?He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.? (16), ?His hanging face, like a devil?s sick of sin? (20), ?Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs? (22) hurls the pain of war and death into the readers face. By the end of the third and last stanza, the irony of the title has completely unfolded: My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. (25-29) Through vivid imagery and compelling metaphors, Owen wants people to stop lying about how ?sweet? and ?fitting? it is ?to die for one?s country?. Pat Barker’s 1991 novel, Regeneration, represents her fictional-historical account of Rivers’ treatment of the war poet Siegfried Sassoon. The novel?s anti-war message is very clear and well argued from Barker?s point of view because by emphasizing on war and madness she shows us how the minds of her characters were damaged by the war. The novel begins with Sassoon?s letter of resignation: ? I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this war, upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest? (3). Here, the changing form of war is described through the eyes of one soldier speaking out for many others. The soldiers expected a war where they would fight for their country?s benefit. Instead, they entered a war where the purpose of their sacrifices was eventually forgotten and senseless slaughter was ?deliberately prolonged?. Also, the use of this letter at the beginning suggests that the theme of the soldiers? disillusionment would frequently be discussed throughout the novel. In the development of the story, a significant change in Rivers? mind and opinion can be noticed: Rivers was aware, as a constant background to his work, of a conflict between his belief that the war must be fought to a finish, for the sake of the succeeding generations, and his horror that such events as those which had led to Burns?s breakdown should be allowed to continue. (47) Rivers was an Englishman of his class and generation: he considered it a necessary war that should be fought to a victory, though he was shocked by the horror stories that would gradually make him doubt that maybe he had been disillusioned about war too. Barker?s way of entering a historical figure?s mind and examining his thoughts helps the reader understand more profoundly the meaning of the war and its terrible consequences. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque illustrates the vivid horror and raw nature of war and tries to change the popular belief that war is an idealistic character. At the beginning of the novel, we notice, as in ?Dolce et Decorum Est?, that there is a tension between young and old. When Kantorek calls Paul and his friends Germany?s iron youth, Paul responds: ?Yes, that?s what they think, these hundred thousand Kantoreks! Iron youth! Youth! We are none of us more than twenty years old. But young? Youth? That is long ago. We are old folk.? (18). Paul?s response suggests that the boys are so tired and have been through so much horror that their youth has been completely destroyed. Also, a very touching passage that portrays the theme of the book quite well is when Paul attacks the romantic ideals of war: I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another. I see that the keenest brains of the world invent weapons and words to make it yet more refined and enduring. (263) Paul?s strong words, demonstrated through the author?s talent, are denouncing the authority figures who were supposed to guide his generation into adulthood but instead turned the youth against each other in the pursuit of superficial ideals. The soldiers were simply the victims of a meaningless war. In conclusion, Remarque?s firsthand encounters with trench warfare, Owen?s vivid descriptions of the soldiers? experiences and Baker?s touching accounts of the lives of historical figures, all state that there were no victors in war, only losers in a hopeless battle for territorial supremacy. Works Cited Barker, Pat. Regeneration. Toronto: Plume, 1993. Owen, Wilfred. ?Dulce et Decorum Est.? The Faber Book of War Poetry. Ed. Kenneth Baker. London: Faber, 1997. 3-4. Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. Trans. A. W. Wheen. New York: Ballantine, 1982. |