Wilfred Owen: Effects From The Great War

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Effects from the Great War In the early 20th century during the Great War many problems occurred among the soldiers and civilians. Going into WW1, people really didn’t apprehend the severity and impact that the war would have on society and the soldiers, both mentally and physically. When the soldiers would return home from duty, it was hard for them to go back to their “everyday” lives especially if they came back wounded or mentally unstable. Life would become more of a coexistence rather than life, as they knew it before. By the end of WW1 approximately 80,000 thousand soldiers were diagnosed with shell shock. This new disease was foreign to everyone, therefore, this disorder was not being treated properly. Doctors initially thought that shell shock was do to wounds from the war, but later it was …show more content…

Owen was another honorable soldier, he was known to many as a “great voice,” in WW1. In 1915 he enlisted into the war and two years later he returned back to home Britain due to shell shock. He was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh, where he met Sassoon. After a year of rehab Owen was “cured” and he returned back to the war. “Disabled,” is one of Owen’s famous poems. This poem in particular is very disturbing to read because this poem reflects on life after war. Reading this poem really give the reader imagery on how the soldiers were treated when they returned home. In the first stanza we the reader learns that the soldier in the poem is handicapped, without legs nor arms. I believe that Owen purposely put this soldier’s description first so we the reader can understand the tragic life that is being revealed from the soldier’s point-of-view. What life is like since his return from the war. Through the entire poem we are to believe that the young man was considered rather charming and handsome (a ladies man). But then in the fourth stanza Owen harps on the recurring issue about the ignorance of