Thomas Lea's Argumentative Analysis

Lea’s piece is an intereptation of war because the painting brings to attention to the chaos of war and how it affects the lives of everyday soliders in ways we commonly do not realize. This solider could have been any number of men serving in the war, allowing viewers to project their own military viewpoints and experiences onto the painting, as civilians or former armed forces. The unknown solider stands at the center point of the canvas’s attention, he faces away from the skirmishes and towards an unknown horizon; despite him not looking at anything in paticular we find ourselves drawn to his eyes. Thomas Lea painted the solider from mid-chest up, by doing so, we are unnable to see the soliders dog tags, his rank or his last name. Without these insignas he remains a nameless solider, his story is silent, the countless …show more content…
Lea expresses that war is not to be romanticised, it is not noble intentions and clear winners, war is the destruction of life, human and otherwise. A tank sits to the soliders left, poised aiming and ready to fire into jungle. Fighter planes soar overhead, waiting to drop the next air strike, to save the lives of our soliders while taking away the lives of the other army. The metal almost blending in against the smokey, blue-gray sky. Smog billows through the air, travels up the mountain side and obscures the landscape view. The jungle is sparse, with a mountian range towering over the canopys. The mountains are stained red. This landscape has been deplated, stripped of all color and seems almost lifeless. Destruction follows behind war, a sentimate this painting leaves behind.
“2000 Yard Stare” depicts the effects war can have on members of the armed forces whom served. Lea’s subject illustrates the unspoken affects war has on armed forces members and how in doing what they do for us as a nation, they see things that forever alter how they view the