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War Is Unpredictable

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War Is Unpredictable
War Essay “War is unpredictable”.
To an extent war is unpredictable, however the meaningless punishment and demoralising conduct is something that soldiers experience constantly throughout war. In Owen’s poem “Anthem for Doomed Youth” he diminishes the patriotism and heroism that is commonly associated with war and replaces it with depictions of the harsh punishment and perfidious death of youth in war. Correspondingly in his poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” he extends the theme of unpatriotic behaviour and hollow death and suggests that war is also a devilish and sinful practice, where nothing but death and hatred arise. Contrastingly, in Stanley Kubrick’s war film “Full Metal Jacket” he does not look at death in war, but conversely the internal punishment that superior officers give to soldiers, harshly exploring the training and punishment soldiers receive before war. Ultimately, these three texts explore the lack of honour and worthless punishment that soldiers experience constantly in war, depicting war as a place of hatred and sin.
In Owen’s poem “Anthem” he removes the common Romantic concepts of glory and triumph that were associated with war from the early 20th century and realistically explores the truly unpatriotic nature of the battlefield. His ideals contrasted the Romantic ideals of glory as well as the government and the media who exhibited war as valiant and fitting for the youth of the early 20th century. Instantly, Owen’s title of the poem contradicts the reader’s belief in the common war values where he pairs the terms “Anthem” and “Doomed Youth” juxtaposing with a gloomy and depressing description of the youth in war. Owen then compares the youth who “died as cattle” to an abattoir by using metaphor, emphasising the sheer amount of death that occurs on the battlefield, also suggesting that the youth are indiscriminately dying with no justification. Likewise, Owen uses juxtaposition to describe the sounds of war, in which he subverts the calming

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