“War is hell”, said General William Sherman, where young men have to kill others in order to survive. War is a concept known throughout the ages, transitioning from sword fighting in the Iliad, to modern warfare in Iraq. War is destroyer of normalcy, ruining families and cities. Kevin Power’s main character in The Yellow Birds, Private Bartle, would certainly agree with the sentiment, having experienced the war in Iraq. However, Hector from the Iliad would argue that war offered a way for someone to forge their legacy. Through the experiences of the main characters, Homer and Turner trace the perception of war, from a necessary source of honor, to an event with no redeeming qualities. Ultimately, the shift from seeing war as a necessary source of honor to something with no redeemable qualities reflect society’s treatment of soldiers.
In the Iliad, legacy was what drove the men to keep on fighting. In Greek society, timé and kleos were two concepts that were prized. The two were honor coming from accomplishments in the battlefield, and allowed heros to be remembered. To a soldier, the two concepts were the ultimate goal. From the text, it is clear that Hector had both. When rallying his troops, the Archaeans, the opposing force, thought that Hector was ,” some god swept down from the starry skies,” (Homer, 6.137). In the Iliad, gods were beings with immense power over the mortal world, and being compared to a god was a sign of honor and respect. Hector is able to reach
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While legacy could be won from the Trojan War, the Iraq war acted as an annihilator of humanity. While Homer’s soldiers were viewed with some sort of reverence, Power’s soldiers were seen as men just trying to survive another day in a foreign land. Soldiers, who once chased fame on the battlefield, now were seen as a statistics from an unpopular war. Finally, soldiers, who were once demi-gods, were seen as just