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Between Epitaph On A Solider And The Death Of A Ball Turret Gunner

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Recommended: Emotional and psychological effects of war on soldiers

Throughout history, one of the most common occurrences during times of warfare is the death of the soldiers who are fighting for their country. Depending on one’s point of view, a soldier’s death at war could be honorable and glorified, or it can be a gruesome, anonymous demise. In the two poems, “Epitaph on a Solider” by Cyril Tourneur and “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” by Randal Jarrell, there is a stark contrast between the emotional impacts experienced by the reader. Through each author’s unique writing style, “Tourneur’s Epitaph on a Soldier” shows glory in a soldier’s death and is supportive of war, while Jarrell’s “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” gives a much more painful impression of war and the passing of those involved in it. In “Epitaph on a Soldier”, Cyril Tourneur is able to creates the tone of admiration and honor through his formal diction. He uses words such as “strength” and “brave” to show his respect for the courage each soldier. Through his careful word choice he expresses respect for the men who risk their lives in battle, despite the very real possibility of losing their lives, as did the soldier featured in the poem. He also includes the complimentary terms “virtue” and “blest” to exemplify his respect for the character of …show more content…

He uses the term “nightmare” to reflect the hardships that are endured during the war. Many people had been drafted into battle, being torn away from their ordinary lifestyle and thrown into a vicious state of death and violence. The life that they are subjected to had been forced upon them, they were living in constant fear of their death or that of their comrades. The author also makes sure to include the “black flak,” which is reminds the reader that the soldiers are always vulnerable to ammunition of the enemy, reinforcing the harsh reality that they could be killed at any

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Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields”, Ernst Junger’s Storm of Steel, and Lewis Milestone’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” present different accounts of World War I. McCrae displays the sorrow of losing comrades while exhorting the public to continue to fight in memory of those who died. Junger writes a gripping account of his experience as a fearless young man in the war. “All Quiet on the Western Front” combines both the sorrow of McCrae’s poem with Junger’s fearless attitude to deliver a war story reminiscent of the personalities of the soldiers. All three works manipulate the use of syntax to evoke a sense of remorse as their audiences recognize the reality of death that manifests in war. McCrae employs syntax to display remorse through his stylization and organization

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Although the soldier he killed was an enemy soldier, instead of vilifying him he was able to humanize the man. O’Brien was able to describe the physical appearance of the soldier and imagine her life before war. The author was able to portray an emotional connection and made the line between friend and enemy almost vanish. This was able to reveal the natural beauty of shared humanity even in the context of war’s horror. O’Brien is able to find the beauty in the midst of this tragic and horrible event.

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Recently, I have read a poem named “In Flanders Field”, written by John McCrae, a Canadian writer. The major theme of the poem is war. Because the poem was written in the year of 1915, during the World War I. At that time, McCrae, as a doctor, joined the army and fought against the Belgian in Flanders, which was located in the northern part of France and the southwest of Belgium.

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“When a man has seen so many dead he cannot understand any longer why there should be so much anguish over a single individual.” (Remarque, 181) During the war, many soldiers may often become desensitized and not feel the emotions they would usually feel when a friend or comrade dies. The war causes them to have a feeling of loss; they lose their emotions and friends; they lose a part of themselves during the war. If the soldiers were to think about every single death that occurred they would go mad. There are so many deaths everyday that it makes them have to move on pretty quickly.

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In addition, the deaths of soldiers will forever be with the ones who remained alive. In “Hope, Despair and Memory” written by Elie Wiesel, the author describes how “for the first time in history, [soldiers] could not bury [the] dead, [they] bear their graves within [themselves]” (2). Throughout the time of a war, each and every soldier will experience a variety of different deaths, each playing a unique emotional role in their lives. War, as challenging as it already may be, is created to be made even more difficult with the immense loss of life every soldier must suffer through. There is absolutely no time to grieve or mourn toward a dear soldier that was lost.

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In the protest play “The Buck Private” by Luis Valdez argues that the vietnam war was an immoral thing ; he uses a humorous and ironic narrator, Death, to show that he Vietnam War killed many young men. Valdez supports his argument by telling a story about a soldier who enlisted into the United States Army and later died while fighting for the U.S. Death tells the story using flashbacks. The author’s purpose is to show the audience the life of so many families to give emphasis on the harsh reality of war. The author writes in humorous and serious tones for the audience to understand the horrors of war. Johnny is mostly a tragic hero, because he is a good man with sincere character who dies because of it.

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Klay’s short stories indicate how different war is for every soldier by containing a different narrator and plot for each story. The different stories show all sorts of different emotions such as fear, guilt, helplessness, and loss of oneself. Klay’s book repeatedly emphasizes the message that civilians will never be able understand a soldier’s experience, therefore civilians should reconsider whether sympathy is the proper way to treat a veteran. The idea that civilians must can only understand a veteran if they have experienced war leaves readers to question whether they truly understand a veterans war experience. Through Klay’s short stories “War Stories,” “After Action Report” and “Frago,” his characterization of certain characters, use of situational irony humor, and decision to have different narrators for every story allows civilians to become more familiar with different war experiences providing a better understanding on how war is a different experience for every

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Death will always complement war. This is seen clearly in Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Man I Killed”. In this tale the Main character, Tim, is vividly describing in his mind the enemy Vietcong solider he just killed life story before his death. He details everything, from the visible wounds on the soldier’s body to a fantasy of the man’s life. Meanwhile, to soldiers in Tim’s platoon acknowledge that he killed this man and try to speak to him about it.

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Through Farquhar, Bierce shows how soldiers on both sides were merciless in their acts, a fact that would never be mentioned if Romantic writings were all that remained from this era. Fast forward several decades, World War Two has consumed the planet, and officers are just as cruel as they were in the Civil War. “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell, announces, through the form of a poem, the callousness of the military in WWII. A man thinks he is safe under the protection of the State, but the poem tells that, “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” (“Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell).

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So the soldier went to the trench to lie down and die. There is also another shift when the author says “and soundlessly attending, dies…”. In the last stanza, the audience can infer that the author is at peace with the death. He says “misted and ebullient seas and cooling shores, towards Amphibia’s empiries.” The audience can feel the relaxation.

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Through the effective use of irony, imagery and powerful diction, Owens is able to make readers empathize for the anguish he bears, both physically and mentally. The poem starts off by using harsh and heartrending metaphors to describe a veteran, who “sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for the dark, And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey.” This description immediately presents the reader a

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