Dulce Et Decorum Est Analysis

Imagery, Irony, Structure, How do writers protest war? Protest a noun, Google says a protest is a statement or action expressing disapproval of something. Many war veterans tend to write about their experience in war and write a protest to express their feeling. Each author of protest uses different elements such as imagery, irony and structure. Wilfred Owen the author of the 1917 poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” uses a great deal of imagery in an effective manner to protest war. Owen protest war by distorting people’s emotions. Owen describes a scene where he sees his war brother being killed from the gas bombs, but Owen is unable to help him, “before my helpless sight/ He plunges at me ,guttering,choking,drowning” (16), the reader is beginning to actually imagine someone who has breathed in the gas and they can feel the pain the soldier is feeling and the panic Owen feels when his war brother is trying to call for help and he is unable to help him. Owen uses imagery in an way to connect with people’s emotions and show the horrid things soldiers see, feel and hear in war. War World 1 veteran Siegfried Sassoon

Another author who uses irony to protest the idea of war is Tim O’Brien. O’Brien uses irony to show how all the things they were issued with helped with help take care of a fallen soldier, “Ted Lavender was shot, they used his poncho to wrap him up, then to carry him across the paddy,then lift him into the chopper that took him away” ( O’Brien). Authors use imagery to support the ironic meaning being the poncho that they wrap Ted Lavender in. The poncho was a item issued to the mean to carry through war, they had such a burden carrying all these items, they didn't realize they could use them for a fallen soldier, the irony in it is how such an normal item is being used to carry a dead