Instead of choosing one single character in denial, Borden presents this town almost as if it was in blissful ignorance. “War had that day the aspect of a county fair. The armies were gipsy caravans vagabonding over the country… Here and there near a stream, a cluster of tents, gaudily painted, suggested a circus,” (21). Borden’s town is romanticizing the image of war as an exciting event, ignoring its consequences. Consequences such as the dehumanization Borden imposes on the old French regiment in the poem. The regiment itself is only referred by the pronoun, “they.” They are not assigned individual identities, but are represented as one single unit. “And they were all deformed, and certainly their deformity was the deformity of the war… The same machine had twisted and bent them all,” (23). In this sentence Borden figuratively refers to their psyche. The knowledge that the old men of the regiment have outlived their sons and that their future is death in the trenches is what has debased them. “They accepted the war. It was a thing to be endured. They were enduring it,” (24). This contrasts, the original idea of the war as an anticipated event. These soldiers expect their
Instead of choosing one single character in denial, Borden presents this town almost as if it was in blissful ignorance. “War had that day the aspect of a county fair. The armies were gipsy caravans vagabonding over the country… Here and there near a stream, a cluster of tents, gaudily painted, suggested a circus,” (21). Borden’s town is romanticizing the image of war as an exciting event, ignoring its consequences. Consequences such as the dehumanization Borden imposes on the old French regiment in the poem. The regiment itself is only referred by the pronoun, “they.” They are not assigned individual identities, but are represented as one single unit. “And they were all deformed, and certainly their deformity was the deformity of the war… The same machine had twisted and bent them all,” (23). In this sentence Borden figuratively refers to their psyche. The knowledge that the old men of the regiment have outlived their sons and that their future is death in the trenches is what has debased them. “They accepted the war. It was a thing to be endured. They were enduring it,” (24). This contrasts, the original idea of the war as an anticipated event. These soldiers expect their