War, And 'Dulce Et Decorum Est'

“Nothing will end war unless the people refuse to go to war”, Albert Einstein. Stephen Crane, the author of “War is Kind”, had no experience with war; that was until the Spanish-American War, where he became a foreign war correspondent. Dulce et Decorum Est, was written by Wilfred Owen; Owen survived as a foot soldier during World War I and lost his life fighting for his country. The author of The Things They Carried, was Tim O’Brien who served in the VIetnam War. The final writing was “The Yellow Birds”, it was written by Kevin Powers after he served terms in the Iraq war. All of these authors use imagery, irony, and structure to protest war. Throughout both writings, “War is Kind” and Dulce et Decorum Est, imagery is demonstrated to protest …show more content…
For instance, in Dulce Et Decorum Est the last line of the last stanza states, “ The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.”. This demonstrates irony because that line in English is translated to say, it is sweet and right to die for your country. This line is ironic because anybody can die from anything, but if it is to honor your country then it would be okay. This quote supports the idea that irony is used to protest war because the soldiers were meant to just fight in war, they would die for their country and that would make their death sweet and right. “The Yellow Bird”, written by Kevin Powers uses irony to protest war. In particular, this excerpt demonstrates a young soldier who was returned home talking to an old group of friends and the soldier is trying to share the experience of war. In the final two lines it states, “because you are a coward and, really, cowardice got you into this mess because you wanted to be a man….”. Men were referred to as a coward if they did not enlist into the war, even though the men felt like cowards even if they had the audacity to join the war. The fact that the men joined the war and still felt like cowards makes this ironic. All of the traumatic experiences that they faced made them unable to function like “normal” people in their society. These examples show irony to protest the thought of war because, both excerpts show …show more content…
Kevin Powers uses structure to protest war in “The Yellow Bird” to try and show the negative effects and dehumanization of a human after they come back from war. The excerpt is one sentence in total, Powers exhibits the mind of a person who has come back from the war and the soldiers thoughts are just jumbled and are not organized in the slightest way. An example that demonstrates how one is dehumanized during war is when it states, “acid seeping down into your soul and then your soul is gone and knowing from being taught that your whole life that there is no making up for what you are doing,”. Structure is used in The Things They Carried because it is a parallel and list structure. The main reason for a listed structure is to try and overwhelm the audience with the amount of items the soldiers have to keep with them throughout the war. An example of parallel structure is when it states, “Because the land was mined and bobby-trapped. Because you could die so quickly. Because the nights were cold, and because the monsoons were wet.”. This demonstrates the use of structure to protest war because it gives the audience an idea of how the conditions of war were very poor. It effects the reader because having an understanding of the reality of war can make one resent the idea or the thought of war. Both Powers and O’Brien use the idea of structure to try and portray that war