The Delusive Glory Of War Essay, Research Paper
Many of the young officers who fought in the Great War enlisted in the
army with glowing enthusiasm, believing that war was played in fancy
uniforms with shiny swords. They considered war as a noble task, an
exuberant journey filled with honor and glory. Yet, after a short period on
the front, they discovered that they had been disillusioned by the war:
fighting earned them nothing but hopelessness, death and terror. They
had lost their lives to the lost cause of war, which also killed their
innocence and youth. They were no longer boys but callous men. Wilfred
Owen?s poem ?Dulce et Decorum Est?, Pat Barker?s novel Regeneration, and
Erich Maria Remarque?s All Quiet on the Western Front, all portray the
irony between the delusive glory of war and the gruesome reality of it,
but whereas Owen and Sassoon treat the theme from a British point of
view, Remarque allows us to look at it from the enemy’s.
The poem ?Dulce et Decorum Est?, an anti-war poem by Wilfred Owen who
was an English footsoldier, states that it is not sweet and fitting to
die a hero?s death for a country. Right off in the first line, Owen
describes the troops as being ?like old beggars under sacks? (1). This
metaphor indicates that the men are battle weary and suggests reluctance.
They also have been on their feet for days and appear to be drained of
youth as they ?marched asleep? (5) and ?limped on, blood-shod? (6).
Overall, in the first stanza,
Oundjian 2
there seems to be a tension between old and young because it shows how
the impact of an endless war has reduced these once energetic young men
to the point where they could be referred to as ?old? (1), ?lame? (6)
and ?drunk with fatigue? (7). In the second stanza and at the beginning
of the third, Owen makes a gruesome portrayal of a gas attack that
painfully expresses desperation, suffering, and powerlessness. He uses ?An
ecstasy of fumbling? (9) to describe the men grasping for their gas
masks during the attack. The fact that ?ecstasy? is used with ?fumbling?
is surprising and disturbing but suggests the difference between the
society?s beliefs about the war and the actuality of it. Images such as
?flound?ring like a man in fire or lime?? (12), ?He plunges at me,
guttering, choking, drowning.? (16), ?His hanging face, like a devil?s sick
of sin? (20), ?Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs? (22) hurls
the pain of war and death into the readers face. By the end of the
third and last stanza, the irony of the title has completely unfolded:
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. (25-29)
Through vivid imagery and compelling metaphors, Owen wants people to
stop lying about how ?sweet? and ?fitting? it is ?to die for one?s
country?.
Pat Barker’s 1991 novel, Regeneration, represents her
fictional-historical account of Rivers’ treatment of the war poet Siegfried Sassoon. The
novel?s anti-war message is very clear and well argued from Barker?s
point of view because by emphasizing on war and madness she shows us how
the minds of her characters were damaged by the war.
The novel begins with Sassoon?s letter of resignation: ? I am a
soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this
war, upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now
become a war of agg
war is described through the eyes of one soldier speaking out for many
others. The soldiers expected a war where they would fight for their
country?s benefit. Instead, they entered a war where the purpose of their
sacrifices was eventually forgotten and senseless slaughter was
?deliberately prolonged?. Also, the use of this letter at the beginning
suggests that the theme of the soldiers? disillusionment would frequently be
discussed throughout the novel. In the development of the story, a
significant change in Rivers? mind and opinion can be noticed:
Rivers was aware, as a constant background to his work, of a conflict
between his belief that the war must be fought to a finish, for the sake
of the succeeding generations, and his horror that such events as those
which had led to Burns?s breakdown should be allowed to continue. (47)
Rivers was an Englishman of his class and generation: he considered it
a necessary war that should be fought to a victory, though he was
shocked by the horror stories that would gradually make him doubt that maybe
he had been disillusioned about war too. Barker?s way of entering a
historical figure?s mind and examining his thoughts helps the reader
understand more profoundly the meaning of the war and its terrible
consequences.
In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque illustrates
the vivid horror and raw nature of war and tries to change the popular
belief that war is an idealistic character. At the beginning of the
novel, we notice, as in ?Dolce et Decorum Est?, that there is a tension between young and old. When Kantorek
calls Paul and his friends Germany?s iron youth, Paul responds: ?Yes,
that?s what they think, these hundred thousand Kantoreks! Iron youth! Youth!
We are none of us more than twenty years old. But young? Youth? That is
long ago. We are old folk.? (18). Paul?s response suggests that the
boys are so tired and have been through so much horror that their youth
has been completely destroyed. Also, a very touching passage that
portrays the theme of the book quite well is when Paul attacks the romantic
ideals of war:
I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but
despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of
sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence,
unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another. I see that
the keenest brains of the world invent weapons and words to make it yet
more refined and enduring. (263)
Paul?s strong words, demonstrated through the author?s talent, are
denouncing the authority figures who were supposed to guide his generation
into adulthood but instead turned the youth against each other in the
pursuit of superficial ideals. The soldiers were simply the victims of a
meaningless war.
In conclusion, Remarque?s firsthand encounters with trench warfare,
Owen?s vivid descriptions of the soldiers? experiences and Baker?s
touching accounts of the lives of historical figures, all state that there
were no victors in war, only losers in a hopeless battle for territorial
supremacy.
Works Cited
Barker, Pat. Regeneration. Toronto: Plume, 1993.
Owen, Wilfred. ?Dulce et Decorum Est.? The Faber Book of War Poetry.
Ed. Kenneth Baker. London: Faber, 1997. 3-4.
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. Trans. A. W.
Wheen. New York: Ballantine, 1982.