War Is War

8 Pages 2095 Words

War is War

Although Ernest Hemingway’s “Solider’s Home” (1925), Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorun Est” (1920), Randall Jarrell’s “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” (1945), and Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (1855) were written approximately one hundred years apart, represent different literary genres, and portray various circumstances, these writings depict realities about the trials and tribulations of war. Through conflict, imagery, symbolism, and theme, each author uses similar devices of sense and sound to present a strong case of the brutality of war. Despite different opinions about the sacrifice of death, different wars resulting from various political agendas and the different background of the writers, war is in and of itself the entity linking these literary works.
In each of the selections, the conflict of reality and illusion is apparent. This internal struggle serves to express the harsh conditions of war with their physical and mental impact on the lives of soldiers during and after battle. In “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, Jarrell portrays the gunner as having a dreamy state of the mind (line 4). While reading the poem it is difficult at times to determine what is really taking place and what the gunner is feeling. “Everything in war […] is reversed: up is down, one ascends to die, life is merely a dream of earth, awakening or realization is a nightmare, for truth is horrible, […] But more importantly man becomes part of the paradox (Dawson 31.4)”. Similarly, in Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est”, soldiers of World War I “drunk with fatigue (2.3) “marched asleep (2.1).” Readers can
Earle 2
imagine the deteriorating mental and physical condition of the men “Lying in the bottom of the trenches trying desperately to hold on to their sanity and courage (Sharpe),” “many had lost all
feeling of reality (Sharpe).” Thi...