Abuse Of Power In Birdsong

In the book “Birdsong” by Sebastian Faulks (the author), demonstrates the advantages of being in power, and being rich. During the First World War, Stephan who enlisted to fight the Germans was put into a position of power. He quickly rose to the rank of left-tenant, with this power, he was given the ability to court martial any soldier who did not follow the strict army rules. One night, as Stephan was walking around at night to inspect the sentries, he saw one of the sentries sleeping. He woke the sentry up and told the man to “report to [him] because the soldier was asleep. [The soldier] wants to know if you are going to have him court martialed. He wants to know if he’s going to get an art lesson he’s going to get shot” (Faulks 135). The reason as to why Stephan acted in such a harsh is because the sentry was endangering the life of not only himself, but the lives of …show more content…
All the while, the soldier is unable to express his thoughts or defend his own life. This demonstrates how little the life of a soldier means to the army. This demonstrates how in the army, the lives of soldiers are expendable. They are used only as bullet magnets or in other words, they are used only for their exchange value. During the years leading up to the war, Stephan was learning about the tilling from a wealthy man called Réne Azaire. He lived in a large house with “too many rooms” (Faulks 6). The family of five lived in an unnecessarily large house, while the poor are living in small shacks with unclean water, small houses and unsanitary living conditions. Needless to say, the Azaire family are living a life of conspicuous consumption. A family of five does not require a house that is large enough to comfortably house twenty to thirty people. But, as a way to demonstrate their wealth to the world, the Azaire family purchases a very large