Is war a waste of human life? Anthem of a doomed youth, Dulce Et Decorum Est and band of brothers has the view that war is a waste of human life. Anthem for doomed youth and Dulce Et Decorum Est use poetic techniques to convince the audience that their perspective is the only perspective but band of brothers has concepts that war is not all bad but it is still a horrific place. My personal opinion is that the war was bad but not all the outcomes were negative. War has destroyed many lives but it has also freed many more. I believe that the war is like a double blade it can swing to ways, whether it destroys lives or helps rebuild them.
Anthem for doomed youth views a negative perspective of war and the impact of the lesser known suffering of the men on the families at home. Wilfred Owen shows in this poem how the men lost their individuality on the battlefield. “Die as cattle” states that the men lost the their self-identity, the quote uses similes which shows that once the men died they were all the same just dead bodies on a Battlefield. Wilfred Owen used cattle as a term because when cattle are mass slaughtered the meat is considered the same, this is the same environment t for the soldiers because once they have died they are just faceless, dead bodies on the battlefield. I agree that war is a waste of human life because the soldiers lost their individuality and basic rights in the war. In this poem Owen highlights the waste of human life in the use of alliteration: ‘rifles, rapid, rattle” to emphasis the relentless noise of the guns and the confusion created by the falling of comrades beside the soldiers and the fear they must have felt. Wilfred Owen used repetition, as a poetic technique to help readers remember the poem. In Anthem for doomed youth Wilfred Owen uses poetic techniques to convince the audience that war is a waste of human life. Anthem for doomed youth highlights the emotional reality of war; I don’t completely agree that war is a waste of war but I do believe that war is an emotional waste of human life, because nobody should be go should through the emotional and physical battles that the soldiers faced and I believe that, that is a waste of human emotions therefore a waste of human life. Don’t forget these soldiers in the main were in the bloom of youth, many had lied about their age to sign-up for the honour of fighting for their country. The glory that was painted by those signing up the young conscripts was a far cry from the reality of the war they were about to experience. Dead on the battlefield they are all faceless. Death has no particular glory for anyone. The soldiers are buried. The war begins again with the dawn and the sound of the guns.
Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owe, is a poem about war, it shares a negative perspective of war with Anthem for doomed Youth and Band of brothers. This poem uses poetic techniques such as tone, imagery and theme. The theme of this poem is war and war is commonly associated with violence and destruction, which is devastating. The poem portrays that war is a waste of human life. This simile “knocked-kneed, coughing like hags” shows the condition the soldiers from the front where in and their poor health. The conditions at the front where brutal and Wilfred Owen expresses these conditions by using the simile, he informs the audience that the men were far from fit, military men, these men were just like old women who resembled witches coughing, spluttering unable to breathe properly. Wilfred Owen wants the readers to understand the physical reality of war and also the horrific deaths that the man endured. “His hanging face, like the devil’s sick of sin” uses climax and simile. The description builds to a climax with the phrase “hanging face” which describes the contortions and twisting of the soldiers facial expressions as he dies. The simile “Like a devil’s sick of sin” paints a picture of a gargoyle spewing out the effects of the mustard gas. Owen