Writers Protest War In 'Dulce Et Decorum Est'

While serving in the war, it may make someone feel like it is impossible. People fail to realize war can affect soldiers and destroy their mind. War has a way of leaving traumatic imprint on one’s mind. Authors tend to protest war whom served in the war. Writers protest war by using irony, imagery, and structure. One way authors protest war is by using imagery. In “Dulce et Decorum Est” Wilfred Owen writes “he plunges at me guttering, choking, drowning” (16). In the poem he is describing a soldier who is choking during the war, from being exposed to gas. Wilfred also states “And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime” (12). This shows how the man is dying of a horrible a death. In “War is Kind” Stephen Crane states “ a field where

This does not show anything about war being sweet. For example, Owen makes us picture a soldier’s “hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin” (20). This clearly shows us how the man’s face is burning off. The final way authors protest war is by demonstrating structure. In “ The Yellow Birds” Kevin Powers does not use any complete sentences. Powers explains how he “should have said that [he] wanted to die, not in the sense of wanting to throw [himself] off of that train bridge over there, but more like wanting to be asleep forever because there isn’t any making up for killing women or even watching women get killed, or for that matter killing men and shooting them in the back”. This shows how his thoughts are jumbled up and he uses the technique of stream of consciousness. It also shows how war can mess up your mind. In “War is Kind” Crane uses repetition. He repeats “war is kind” many times throughout the poem. In “Dulce et Decorum Est” Owen uses a rhyme scheme to protest war. For example, he says “if in some smothering dreams you too could pace/behind the wagon that we flung him in,/and watch the white eyes writhing in his face,/his hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin” (17-20). In “The Things They Carried” Tim O’Brien writes his information in a list. He lists the necessities the soldiers carry such as, “P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches,