War And Patriotism In Mark Twain's War Prayer

In Mark Twain’s “War Prayer,” the aged stranger reminds the crowd of the “silent prayer” that they were reciting, in hoping for their own victory, which, in essence, was calling for the other side’s demise and misery. The people branded him as a lunatic and did not take his words seriously. These people were under a “war fever” where the gruesome features of war were ignored for the victory. Nevertheless, these facts of war are a constant and war is a horrifying ordeal that leaves its participants scarred. The rise in patriotism sweeps these details under a rug in war and lead to a hunger for war. War and nationalism are major factors in a country's sense of patriotism, but excess of these have the potential to instigate wars. The effect these two factors have on both a nation’s citizens and soldiers can completely change the atmosphere

Patriotism in its most basic form is the love of one’s country, and it has been expressed throughout history as being rash and blind to a country’s faults. Patriots are expected to follow the government’s orders during a war, even if they end up failing foolishly like in Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade” where the British army rushed towards their deaths at the hands of the Russians during the Crimean war (Somerville 576). This blind following is characteristic of patriotism as how when during the Cuban Missile Crisis the US was extremely stubborn in their views on the Soviet Union even rejecting a previous offer of peace, all for the sense of pride and bravado that comes with “defending one’s country” (Summerville). This same patriotism could have very well had ended the world in a nuclear bomb but thankfully all was resolved. Patriotism is present both in peace time and war