American Author Gary Paulsen once said “the essence of war is insanity. Destruction, death, women widowed, children orphaned, lands plundered, property destroyed, lives decimated一 it’s all bad.” Paulsen describes war, detailing the intimate and horrific details that occur throughout war. The words he employs display the harshness of war, conveying feelings of sadness and a state of uneasy. The ideas surrounding war are further examined in three different pieces of work; “The War Prayer” by Mark Twain, “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, and “Elusive Bargain” by Andrew J. Bacevich. The authors present war as holy and glorious, which in turn, becomes a harsh reality for the civilians who enter into war and discover the destruction and horror.
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In “The War Prayer” the citizens of the town believe the war to be amazing and holy, and the soldiers believe in this. At a time, most of the citizens of the town gather at the church to praise and celebrate the war, “it was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way“ (Twain 11-13). The alliteration of “glad and gracious” draws attention to this idea, displaying the importance of this view of war. Glad and gracious both connote feelings of joy, thus confirming these feelings of the citizens in a time of war. Next employing words such as stern and angry display the seriousness of going against the citizens, and the word quickly exhibits the speedy action, or the threat of their safety, took by the citizens to eliminate this opposing idea. Furthermore, these citizens even go as far to almost exile these threats; the fact that these persons “shrank out of sight” confirms this idea of exile. Connecting to that idea, that these persons aren’t even described as people, but as “spirits” further exemplifies this. Ultimately if anyone goes against the shared view of war as virtuous, they are quickly eliminated and essentially
In “The War Prayer” the citizens of the town believe the war to be amazing and holy, and the soldiers believe in this. At a time, most of the citizens of the town gather at the church to praise and celebrate the war, “it was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way“ (Twain 11-13). The alliteration of “glad and gracious” draws attention to this idea, displaying the importance of this view of war. Glad and gracious both connote feelings of joy, thus confirming these feelings of the citizens in a time of war. Next employing words such as stern and angry display the seriousness of going against the citizens, and the word quickly exhibits the speedy action, or the threat of their safety, took by the citizens to eliminate this opposing idea. Furthermore, these citizens even go as far to almost exile these threats; the fact that these persons “shrank out of sight” confirms this idea of exile. Connecting to that idea, that these persons aren’t even described as people, but as “spirits” further exemplifies this. Ultimately if anyone goes against the shared view of war as virtuous, they are quickly eliminated and essentially