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The Cruelty of War in Literature

 

            War has long figured as a theme in literature, some of the world's greatest works are about armies and battles. The numerous conflicts of the war and peace produced writers who sometimes chose to concentrate their writing on the horrifying effects and worthlessness of war. These writers wrote about the cruelty of war and they reveal the dark truth about it. They wrote a good piece of literature which really showed the peoples feelings during this time. The wars affected people and their everyday lives because many of their loved ones were fighting and dying .In three different literary works and by three different authors the topic of war is presented in a variety of styles. .
             Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" uses bright imagery in order to correct the patriotic idea that it is sweet and honorable to die for one's country. Randall Jarrell's "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" compares decrease in war to an abortion by using ambiguity. However, in "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien, the ambiguity is displayed with irony to demonstrate that death is one of life's most challenging obstacles. Each work presents the death of a man for his country and wants to allow readers feel the situation, to see with their own eyes the conflict that the struggling and dying soldier goes through. At the same time express the horror and futility of dying for a state by using different style.
             In "Dulce et Decorum Est" Wilfred Owen uses a large amount of details. First he describes soldiers as "beggars" (664) struggling towards a horrible destination and as a group of ill and exhausted soldiers trading through the battlefield on their knees by using vivid imaginary "knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge" (664). Owen gives an image of soldiers that is far from patriotic view of war "men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots but limped on, blood-shod" (664).


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