There have been many prestigious wars fought between many great forces since the dawn of man.These great battles cause violence,terrorism,and self-harm.These battles have such devastating effects that writers actually write about them in forms of protest.Writers protest war using imagery,irony, and structure.
Writers use horrendous imagery to protest the gruesome details of war.In Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est”, Owens states that “before my helpless sight,/He plunges at me, guttering,choking,drowning”(15-16). Owens recalls the moment his fellow comrade started to die due to a gas attack.Owens uses descriptive imagery of how his friend suffered to strike trepidation into the hearts of readers. Owens even expresses “If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood /Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs”(21-22). Owens uses continuous imagery of his friend’s suffering to make the reader feel gut-wrenching emotions of fear and anxiety. In Kevin Powers The Yellow Birds, narrator John Bartle recalls “the...guts… and everything stinking like metal and burning garbage...You walk around and the smell is deep down into you”. Power’s uses gored images and putrid smells to invoke the reader to imagine the battlefield as a terribly malevolent place.
Writers use verbal irony to protest misleading ideas about war. In Stephen Crane’s “War is Kind”, Crane suggests “Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind./Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky”(1-2). Crane states that war is