The Man He Killed By Thomas Hardy

Tien Nguyen ( 1072 words)
Professor Juncker
English 1B
November 8 2016
Consequences of Following Orders
Have you ever questioned why you followed commands, orders or instructions from other people? What makes you obey or disobey them? Millions of people were killed in wars because they followed the orders from their authorities. They didn’t even have an accurate reason to kill others, but they still did it as it was their missions. Obedience is a form of social influence where people follow an order from another, who is often their authorities. Obedience is depicted more clearly in the poems by Thomas Hardy and Robert Frost. In the poem “ The Man He Killed”(1902), Hardy illustrates the man kills his enemy as it is his mission. He questions
In the poem “ The Man He Killed,” Hardy mentions the importance that the man is a foe many times and the shooting the gun more than once. This repetition states the two men were in a war, so they had to kill each other. This killing is an order for each other, so either one is survived. In fact, the repetition is a method that Hardy tries to illustrate how the man persuades himself that killing his enemy is a right thing to do. Hardy uses this repetition to explain the man tries to release himself from being regretted or feeling sin while Frost uses the repetition to emphasize the neighbor’s decision depended on his father’s advice. In the poem “ The mending Wall,” Frost repeats two lines such as “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” and “ Good fence makes good neighbors”( Frost 1 and 27). This repetition emphasizes as it is my side of the argument, and that is your side of the argument. The speaker starts to tell how unnecessary the wall is and tries to change his neighbor perspective by asking why, but still his neighbor replies: “ Good fence makes good neighbors,” and can not explain why. Thus, by this repetition, we all know people will not figure out why they have done it by following
Hardy uses the battlefield to state where people will surely fight each other. In contrast, if two men are sitting at a bar drinking their favorites beers, thing must be different. The battlefield represents the fighting and killing each other, so as the speaker is a soldier, he kills others as it is his mission. However, he cannot explain killing the man in war is right or not. The speaker might be regretted and confused of his action. In the other hand, scholarlist Arms, who is the author of the article: “ The Mending Wall,” describes a countryside as the setting, where there are not dangerous animals to keep the wall. The speaker keeps telling the wall is pointless and there is no reason to keep it since the only thing around them are trees and apples (Arms). However, the neighbor denies and believes in his father’s advice. Therefore, through many elements in both poems, we can see the importance of following orders will lead to a confusion, sadness, fear, regret,