Wilfred Owen Use Similes In Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bullets go whizzing unbelievably close to your head, you hear your comrade to the right screaming in agony, and the guy on your left is lying on the ground withering in pain from the hole in his gut that was World War I. When it came to war, families had a notion that sending their sons off to war was a beautiful, and noble act. However, in “Dulce et Decorum Est” a poem by Wilfred Owen, he explains the reality of war and death. Through intense similes, and vivid imagery, the poet’s attitude about young men dying for their country is conveyed as one full of disapproval. By using similes, Wilfred Owen conveys to his readers the horrors of war, which many think he saw. He creates a picture of a man in mustard gas, “flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…” (Line 12). Owen uses similes as a way to show society in that time, that war is not a vacation for their young sons, nor is it a place that they will be safe. War is a hostile, and cruel environment for anyone, but especially for the still developing minds of eighteen and nineteen year old boys. Owen wants his readers to realize that the war is a terrifying, life-changing place to inhabit. …show more content…
Still describing the man who is caught in the mustard gas, the author uses words like, “…guttering, choking, drowning…” and “…froth-corrupted lungs…”(Lines 16,22). This vivid diction almost creates a movie like experience for the reader, where they can see this poor kid being murdered by mustard gas, and the idea that war is not by any means pretty or noble. These words show that Owen’s attitude towards the war is that he disapproves of the idea that these young men are doing a wonderful, patriotic act that should be glorified. What he is trying to communicate is that war should not be put be painted as a pretty picture for or by the people that have no experience in that awful