Contrasts Owen's Deadbeat Soldier example essay topic

Owen displays the reality of war, atypically shown in 20th century literature. By divulging the and terrors of brutal warfare, he exposes the superficiality of valor and false heroism; through his vivid writing, he opens the eyelids of his readers and discloses, "the old lie (Owen, Dulce et Decorum est, 25). Owen breaks idealism, replacing it with illness, physical injuries, exhaustion, fatigue and personal hells. Contrasting the Hemingway code hero, Owen displays the reality of war, which diverges from the epic and heroic displays of war displayed through classic characters like the code hero. The dead beat soldier symbolizes classic 20th century anti-war sentiments. Flesh torn and maggot eaten, skin writhing, crack and molested from heat; the dead beat soldier is presumably one of the most wretched people, and one with the most deathlike traits.

Death written in his eyes, he walks fruitlessly with no aim; for one who walks with no purpose is the living dead. Both mind and spirit have been broken, the pieces of body that seem to drop off fall in line with what is already lost; this is the result of war. The soldier can be looked at as the living dead because although he is alive, he is dead in mind and spirit and heart. "He dropped, - more sullenly that wearily, lay stupid like a cod, heavy like meat (Owen, The Deadbeat soldier, 1-2)."Just blinker at my revolver, blearily; didn't appear to know a war was on (3-4)". The deadbeat soldier reverts to a fetal like mental state, incapable of noticing or responding to the world around them. This state is not so much a rupture in brutish nature, but a reversion back to nothingness and unknowing ness for protection; rather both mind and body shut down from weariness.

The dead beat soldier no longer responds to their environment; it's as if their reality no longer exists. They are not worn from war, but rather circumstance and loss of hope, lives and chance. "It's Blight y, 'p raps, he sees; his pluck's all gone, dreaming of all the valiant, they aren't dead: Bold uncles, smiling ministerially (10-12)."Maybe his brave young wife, getting her fun. In some new home, improved materially.

It's not these stiffs have crazed him, nor the Hun (13-15)". Dreams are the only escape for the deadbeat soldier. Reality equals death. Pain is in existence and the pangs of murder rip up the throats of the prayer-less men, like toxic acid from Satan's belly. Life is but a savage beast and its harpoon is sleep.

In consciousness they have to deal with the bitter realities of war; pain and memories, the latter being the strongest. In this eternal dream all is at peace and harsh memories are discarded. A soldier becomes godlike granting life or death", a creature of benevolence bestowing rest on the exhausted soldier, a blessed relief after the stresses of war (Musil, 256)."First sleep took him by the brow then the second took him by the heart (257)". The death is a momentary disturbance to the forgiving REM cycle and then life "ebbs away and stillness ensues (256)."Asleep... sleep... sleeping... sleepy (256)", the repetition magnifies a sense of peace.

"Men marched asleep (Dulce et Decorum est, 7)", the idea of sleep and fatigue are very prevalent in Owen's works. Owen talks of "in all my dreams"/"smothering dreams (15)". The men are clumsy and fumbling. They "turned their backs (3) " against the sheets of shelled rain. They become blink, dead, in helpless sight. Consciousness equals pain and reality equals realization; the realization of lost lives, unfaithful wives and fleeting youths.

Owen questions the sizing up of men through courage and bravery. In Dulce et Decorum est Owen questions, "pro propane mori, dulce et decorum est (Dulce et Decorum est, 26-28) " is it right to die for honor? He displays brutal images of scenes of war as an antithesis to patriotism. One of the things Owen does is try to conquer the unrealistic and ideological philosophy of war efforts. Promise and honor unsteadily drags men into war, as they carry their crosses they are shown promised images of glory and lush rewards. Contradicting the less novelty joblessness upon return to home and gangrenous deaths.

The idea of people cheering the soldiers, upon their arrival pulls them into unconscious desires. Instead of glory they find no praise and no shouts of congregation! In The Send Off Owen describes this. There is a sinister atmosphere and, "the lanes are dark and claustrophobic (W.O. Association 260)". The sending off was cheerful and dear; cheering crowds, bells, drums, and flowers being given by strangers.

The sheds that contain the soldiers, however represent the soldiers death and ultimate slaughter. The men's departure in the night is deathly clandestine, like something terribly wrong being covered up-of these; many of these men will die. The send off song is cheerful, yet should be sung- oh woe to the dead. No prayers, nor bells, nor any voice of mourning save the choirs", the choir of shells that will shower upon their heads (Musil 256)". There is no heroes burial, just lowly bloody graves.

Owen paints this vile image of the dead walking. He talks about the overwhelming sense of emptiness and despair. Vivid images of gas filling the lungs of the still living and men succumbing to oceans filled with dead bodies. He instills these images into the young men looking to enter the war, the descriptions are vulgar and revolting.

The soldiers Owen describes are, "bent double and knock-kneed (Dulce et Decorum est, 1-2)."Cursing", and "coughing like hags of beggars (2)". Owen questions if Horace's idealism of bravery when saying, "It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country (Anthology 456)". Owen forces these young men to take a second look at war and to essentially first-hand encounter the gruesome death of an American soldier. This poem "attacks upon the ignorant belligerence of civilian noncombatants (Musil 359)". It seeks to degrade the "old lie (Dulce et Decorum est, 28) "; that it is proper to die for one's country. It rejects the philosophy of bravery and unwarranted patriotism.

To unmask the "old lie (28)", Wilfred Owen vividly describes the hash realities of war, through his poems like Dulce et Decorum est. He portrays the cursory and machine like qualities of the men, and impersonality of a solider. "Bent-double, knock-kneed (1-2)", they are all together all uniform and lifeless. He describes horrid scenes of men drowning in seas of gas. The men are "floundering, guttering, choking, drowning (12-16)".

Thick green light emanates from this vast and overpowering ocean. "As under a green sea, I saw him drowning"/ "gas gargling from the frost-corrupted lungs (14)". Owen writes of a man drowning in a sea of poisonous gas. In Anthem for Doomed Young, he describes a gloomy depiction of true war and how things really are. "What passing bells for these who die as cattle"/ "only the monstrous anger of the guns"/ "only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle can patter out their hasty orisons"/ "no mockeries for them; no prayers / nor bells, nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, - The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shrines. What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes shall shrine the holy glimmers of good-byes (Anthem for Doomed Young, 1-11)". The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall; their flowers the tenderness of patriot minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds (12-14)". This heartening and desperate description of the lives of the men is heart-breaking. His even more effectively uses this type of language in Exposure, turning our stomachs and usurping our hearts; causing a feeling of disgust for war, rather than self-sacrificing bravery.

When describing the physical injuries of war gangrene etc, "slowly our ghosts drag home' glimpsing the sunk fires gloze d with crusted dark-red jewels: crickets jingle there (Owen, Exposure, 30-35)."For hours the innocent mice rejoice"/ "we turn back to our dying"/ "our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us... (32-34)". Owen also divulges upon the numerous mental illnesses of the soldiers. Their pain is beyond grief; so sick of being tired and all so tired of being sick- the ceaseless raining of shells, gas, and not knowing whether they are alive or dead had become their new American classic. "Bitter as the cud of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues (Dulce et Decorum est, 23-24)."The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells (Anthem for Doomed Young, 7-8)". In Counter Attack, Owen describes in detail the hell the soldiers have to encounter; "the place was rotten with dead; green clumsy legs high-booted, sprawled and groveled along the saps and trunks, face downward, in the sucking mud wallowed like trodden sand-bags loosely filled (Counter Attack, 7-9)".

Owen describes what this does to the soldiers abrasively in Mental Cases. "Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight? Wherefore rock they, purgatorial shadows, dropping tongues from jaws that slob their relish, baring teeth that leer like skulls teeth wicked (Mental Cases, 1-4)."These are men whose minds the Dead have ravished (10)". For the "multitudinous murders they have once witnessed (Disabled 9)", have driven them to insanity. The soldiers became enraptured in paranoia from being exposed to these deadly elements.

"Carnage incomparable", and "human squander rucked too thick for these men's extrication"/ "therefore still there eyeballs shrink tormented back into their brains, because on their sense sunlight seems a bit blood-smear (17-20)". As sun breaks they receive none what to light them, but only, "an awful falseness of set-smiling corpses (Mental Cases, 24)". These men are utterly defenseless in the foreign realm, barren and dead in spite of the oceans of gas and raining shells; they become disabled. They are defenseless to reclaim their lives; "now he will never feel again how slim girls' waists are (Disabled, 12) / "all of them touch him like some queer disease (13) /"he's lost his color very far from here, poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry, and half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race (18)". The men go into the war urged by "the old lie (Dulce et Decorum est, 28)". They believe that glory and honor is more grand than what they know, however, war they find is vacuous and deadly.

There "receding voices will not return (But I Was Looking At The Permanent Stars, 9)". The beauty they once know is fleeting in times of war and old images dissipate. As the soldiers watched the stars they slowly began to dissipate, and counting them all one by one they checked just to make sure they were there, however, like the light of many they have slowly emanated away. Owen contrasts the Hemingway code hero, by displaying the realities of war, diverging them from the epic and heroic displays of the classic heroes.

The Hemingway code hero specifically abides by a principled set of ideals honor, valor, endurance, and overwhelming courage. If a character is able to portray these traits in the face of danger than he can be deemed a code hero. The code hero is the ideal man, displaying the classic masculine traits such as self-control, self-reliance, strict morals-although fitting into his own set of values and most importantly fearlessness. The Hemingway code hero cannot be scared of anything, even death. He tries to combat it but must eventually, courageously fear death and overcome it. During the warfare the code hero is not plagued with regrets or any sentiments of guilt and pain.

He is meant to exemplify the perfect man without fear. The code hero believes in "Nada", or nothing. This greatly contrasts Owen's deadbeat soldier. Plagued with exhaustion, grief and disillusionment, the deadbeat soldier is meant to be pitied, and acts as a representation for why not to go to war; he is pathetic and utterly wretched. "Lay stupid like a cod, heaving like meat"/ "ill do 'em in, he wined"/"he sent him down at last, out of the way (The Deadbeat 2-12)". He is meant to be an exemplification of all the evils or war, the code hero, however is valor and dashing even in the midst of war.

There's no talk of rotting blood or vile images, the most graphic display in a Hemingway story might be the main character getting slugged and wiping the residue of spit and blood from the side of his unshaven face. The code hero is plagued with fears and personal hells, but he is expected to overcome it; while not showing fear or loss of commitment. Santiago, in The Old Man and the Sea, faces a near death experience; he must overcome this huge monstrous fish equaled to him in size and might all while displaying the same traits. He must never give up, and if he does he's a coward. The deadbeat soldier has already essentially given up on life.

He is a dead man walking. Owen curses the expectations that Hemingway sizes men up to. Courage he believes is given to those undeserving of it, valor is falsely built into the backbone of the youth and to die for one's country is foolish. Hemingway forces his characters to go up against these enormous tasks, which until they pass, they are not men. The code hero is also not allowed to show emotion or complain. The differences in the deadbeat soldier and the code hero represent the split between what Owen coined the "old lie (Dulce et Decorum est, 28) " and the new fight.

Owen was idealism's strongest opponent. The idea of cheering crowds and lush rewards is what sucked young men into the war. He battles the "old lie (28) ", that is told to children eager for glory; "dulce et decorum est (28)", - it is sweet to die for one's country. He denounces romantically heroic war idealism and condemns the people who sit at home and beat patriotism into their children. War is not glory, honor; pink cherubim babies will not one day here of a man's heroic displays, rather their story will go down into the frothing ocean of rising gas. Through his vivid displays, Owen tries to rip the implanted romanticism ideology and guilt imbedded by parents.

Owen demands that parents not tell their children about the war, meaning any ideology they have built up since the revolution, with such enthusiasm and prestige; he exposes the truth. "My friend, you would not tell with high zest; to children ardent for some desperate glory, to old lie dulce et decorum est pro patria moni (24-28)."Patting goodbye, doubles they had told the lad he'd always show the Hun a brave man's face; father would sooner him dead than in disgrace, - was proud to see him going, aye, and glad (S.I. W, 1-4)."Perhaps his mother whimpered how'd shed fret until he got a nice, safe wound to nurse. Sisters would wish girls too could shot, charge, curse... (4-8)". The "old lie (28)", would blind people, would instill them with courage and not prepare them. As soldiers suffered", his eyes grew old with wincing, and his hand reckless with age (S.I. W, 13-15)."Courage leaked, as sand from the best sandbags after years of rain"/ "but never leave, wound, fever, trench-foot, shock"/"death sooner than dishonor, that's the style's o father said" /"that's the style, death sooner than dishonor"; put on a brave man's face (15-20)".

The soldiers will die surrounded by sweltering lies; die for your country-that's the American spirit. Reasons for going to war, were both many and few, few right, many wrong, dew true, many false; they were not even their own. It was too deadly, so that daddy could feel honorable and mother can feel pride for her son's paper thin scars. The war was so impersonal, it was just another extent of idealism. Most soldiers neither knew what they were fighting for or who they were fighting against. The American spirit, was their lingo and honor and courage was their dying breath- to die for Uncle Sam was their epithet.

Owen sometimes compares the government and the soldier to that of the Roman's and Christ. Owen emphasizes the souls of the soldiers by saying "blood all over our soul (Metal Cases, 20)". He talks of "black-blooded (Mental Cases, 12) ", representing the devil's blood in blood spilt. The men are in hell "sleeping, and walking hell, but who these hellish (Mental Cases, 9)".

These men are in their own personal hells on earth. He compares a soldier to Christ who's disciples have left him. "One ever hangs where shelled roads part. In this war he too lost a limb, but his disciples hide apart (At a Calvary near the Ancre, 1-4). The government represents the priests.

"Near Golgotha strolls many a priest, and in their faces there is pride that they were flesh-marked by the Beast by who the gentle Christ's denied"/ "the scribes on all the people shave and bawl allegiance to the state, but they who love the greater love lay down their life, they do not hate (At a Calvary near the Ancre, 4-9)". That they were flesh-marked by the beast symbolizes the soldiers giving into the government or the devil, and they have sold their souls by joining the army. They are the priest who are a part of the war yet do nothing and berate the soldiers. They smile with prideful faces in feelings that they are doing something.

They "Bawl allegiance" to the state, while the soldier's"/ Christ "lay down their life (At a Calvary near the Ancre, 10-13)". In the parable of The Parable of the Old Man and the Young, Owen compares Abraham to that of a father who is " a military architect for his son's doom (W. O Association, 356)", and the son to Isaac. "Then Abraham bounded the youth with belts and straps and built parapets and trenches there, and stretched forth the knife to slay his son (The Parable of the Old Man and the Young, 7-11)". Isaac is betrayed by his father and murderers that he may have more glory symbolizing the government and soldiers. The reasons why the men chose to go into war are shown as foolish and not self-controlled. "It was after football, when he'd drank a peg, He thought he'd better join- He wonders why (Disabled 23-24)."Smiling they wrote his lie: age 19 years.

Germans he scarcely thought of; all their guilt, And Austria's, did not move him. And no fears of Fear came yet. He thought of jeweled hilts For daggers in plaid socks; of smart solutes; And care of Arms; and leave; and pay arrears. This was the "old lie (28)", imbedded in the young men. "There was no glory, little or no honor; Some cheered him home, but not as a crowd cheers a goal (Disabled, 37-39)".

Owen tries to discard the "old lie (28)", through his war poems and through smart prose creates a plausible contradiction to classical ideas of heroism and romanticism.