Refugee Blues Wilfred Owen Analysis

Furthermore, these subjects are presented as having lost their personal identity through being victims of society. This can be seen in ‘Disabled’ when he says, “now he will…take whatever pity they may dole”. This demonstrates a loss of personal identity because, as we know from the rest of this poem, his pre-war life revolved around being an active young lad, and the war has transformed his life and stripped him of his personal identity. The word ‘now’ in particular highlights the fact that his current dispirited personality and desperation for pity and attention has not always been a part of his personality; the way society has rejected and neglected him has brought that about. In ‘Refugee Blues’, however, the loss of identity can be seen both legally and personally, the latter of which is not dissimilar to the loss of identity observed in ‘Disabled’. A legal loss of identity is shown when ‘the consul’ says, “if you’ve got no passport you’re officially dead,” because it shows that without official documentation, they are worthless and insignificant regarding the official system. Another way in which the subjects of ‘Refugee Blues’ have lost a personal identity is by their loss of personality; the refugees are seen as a threat as a group

In both poems, structure is a fundamental contribution to the messages that they convey, and it forms a very major part of how the reader interprets them, and the techniques used add empathy and make their characters appear more pitiful and victimized. Personally, I think ‘Disabled’ conveys a more powerful message as it is written in a more sombre, bleak manner and therefore evokes a more emotional response from the reader, yet the poem I prefer is ‘Refugee Blues’, because it is written in first person, and this makes me feel more connected with the narrator, and so I feel more impacted by the message of the