Dehumanization in World War I, in central Europe from 1914-1918, is one of the most gruesome events in human history. People from all over the continent adored and glorified the opportunity to enlist in the war. Although this excitement caused people to enlist, it did not continue as they started to experience the horrors of war. Soldiers participated in these wars at the expense of their humanity that they would never be able to regain. Literary works are created across the globe detailing the stories of soldiers such as the novel All Quiet on the Western Front and the poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est". The authors of these literary works, Erich Maria Remarque and Wilfred Owen, use disturbing examples of zoomorphism, juxtaposition, and imagery to develop
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The men aren't even recognized as soldiers, but lowly, old beggars that are generally assumed to be useless. Not only are they given a low human status, but they are described as lacking basic human rights such as cleanliness, sleep, clothing, and normal health. Without these basic human rights, no one would consider them as human, further reinforcing that the war has taken away their humanity. This dehumanizing image of the soldiers barely surviving the tame parts of the war is interrupted shortly after the group finds themselves vulnerable to the enemy’s gas attacks. As the soldier barely pulls his mask over his face, he witnesses the horrifying scene of his comrade suffering in the gas: “And watch the white eyes writhing in his face. If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs” (19, 21-22). The author uses morbid language such as “white eyes writhing”, “every jolt”, and “froth-corrupted lungs”. Owen uses these specific phrases to convey the inhumane actions that the soldiers are enduring. This passage constructs an image in the reader’s mind of a rabid animal, the soldiers, trying to escape an exterminator, the
The men aren't even recognized as soldiers, but lowly, old beggars that are generally assumed to be useless. Not only are they given a low human status, but they are described as lacking basic human rights such as cleanliness, sleep, clothing, and normal health. Without these basic human rights, no one would consider them as human, further reinforcing that the war has taken away their humanity. This dehumanizing image of the soldiers barely surviving the tame parts of the war is interrupted shortly after the group finds themselves vulnerable to the enemy’s gas attacks. As the soldier barely pulls his mask over his face, he witnesses the horrifying scene of his comrade suffering in the gas: “And watch the white eyes writhing in his face. If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs” (19, 21-22). The author uses morbid language such as “white eyes writhing”, “every jolt”, and “froth-corrupted lungs”. Owen uses these specific phrases to convey the inhumane actions that the soldiers are enduring. This passage constructs an image in the reader’s mind of a rabid animal, the soldiers, trying to escape an exterminator, the