What benefit does war serve to those who fight? This is what writers such as Stephen Crane, Wilfred Owen, Tim O’Brien, and Kevin Powers all pull into question in certain pieces of work they have created. Crane worked as a journalist and he also covered the Spanish- American War, he wrote the poem, “War Is Kind”. Owen had fought and died in World War I and Owen wrote “Dulce et Decorum Est”. O’Brien served in the Vietnam war and wrote the novel, “The Things They Carried”. Finally, Powers served in Iraq and wrote the novel, “The Yellow Birds”. Each of these writers- Crane, Owen, O’Brien, and Powers use either imagery, irony, and structure to protest war. First of all, Crane and Owen use imagery to protest war. For instance in stanza four of
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For example, in stanza two of “War Is Kind” it states, “...These men were born to drill and die. The unexplained glory flies above them, Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom- A field where a thousand corpses lie.” (Crane). Clearly, Crane is describing how the men were expecting something glorious to come out of war, but in reality war was where they would watch their fellow soldiers die one-by-one. In addition, the quotation from stanza three of “Dulce et Decorum Est” states, “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.” (Owen). This quotation demonstrates how children are taught the glory of war as well. But they are also taught that it is sweet and right to die for your country and Owen directly contradicts the statement since throughout the poem he writes about the story of a dying soldier to then prove that the truth of war is much different from what some believe. In summary, for these reasons both Crane and Owen use irony to protest …show more content…
For instance in “The Things They Carried”, O’Brien states, “...Among the necessities or near-necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, C rations, and two or three canteens of water.” (O’Brien). This quotation uses structure to protest war through enumeration otherwise known as the list-like form of it. The quote almost takes your breath away or it seems extremely long and stretched out to express how much soldiers had to carry during war. This expresses the endlessness that war tends to make some men feel. Another example is in “The Yellow Birds”, Powers states, “...so why not just find a spot and curl up and die and let’s make it as painless as possible because you are a coward and, really, cowardice got you into this mess because you wanted to be a man…” (Powers). In this quotation Powers uses a stream of consciousness narration to express that the piece is one long sentence. But, through this one may see that this passage has no structure at all in that the thoughts of the writer are jumbled and the writer also skips around from topic to topic with no real end. This shows how war has make Powers over think and regret everything throughout the passage. Thus, this proves that both
For example, in stanza two of “War Is Kind” it states, “...These men were born to drill and die. The unexplained glory flies above them, Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom- A field where a thousand corpses lie.” (Crane). Clearly, Crane is describing how the men were expecting something glorious to come out of war, but in reality war was where they would watch their fellow soldiers die one-by-one. In addition, the quotation from stanza three of “Dulce et Decorum Est” states, “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.” (Owen). This quotation demonstrates how children are taught the glory of war as well. But they are also taught that it is sweet and right to die for your country and Owen directly contradicts the statement since throughout the poem he writes about the story of a dying soldier to then prove that the truth of war is much different from what some believe. In summary, for these reasons both Crane and Owen use irony to protest …show more content…
For instance in “The Things They Carried”, O’Brien states, “...Among the necessities or near-necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, C rations, and two or three canteens of water.” (O’Brien). This quotation uses structure to protest war through enumeration otherwise known as the list-like form of it. The quote almost takes your breath away or it seems extremely long and stretched out to express how much soldiers had to carry during war. This expresses the endlessness that war tends to make some men feel. Another example is in “The Yellow Birds”, Powers states, “...so why not just find a spot and curl up and die and let’s make it as painless as possible because you are a coward and, really, cowardice got you into this mess because you wanted to be a man…” (Powers). In this quotation Powers uses a stream of consciousness narration to express that the piece is one long sentence. But, through this one may see that this passage has no structure at all in that the thoughts of the writer are jumbled and the writer also skips around from topic to topic with no real end. This shows how war has make Powers over think and regret everything throughout the passage. Thus, this proves that both