Disabled - Wilfred Owen

“Disabled” described a soldier who stayed in the hospital due to the fact that he got physically and mentally destroyed. It shows the effect the war has on the young man’s life. He was in deep misery since he was limbless clearly as a result of war. The word “wheeled chair” implies that the person is disabled, and the quote “legless, sewn short at elbow” further described that the soldier was limbless. Owen described him as a “ghastly suit of grey” painting a picture of colorless, grey, lifeless man. This soldier was clearly devastated, despair and hopeless to himself and Owen portrayed it using irony and sympathy techniques for readers to empathy him. Moreover, Owen contrasted the memories of the soldier with his current experience, allowing readers to relate to the soldier easily. He also illustrated how the soldier’s lifestyle changed dramatically from once a great athlete, popular with the girls to in a wheelchair and “they touch his like a queer disease”. Being a wheelchair and limbless made him no longer be seen as a normal person. “Now he is old, his back will never brace; he’s lost his color very far from home.”

When the soldier departed for war, he was treated like hero, but people’s reactions changed differently on his arrival home, “Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer goals”. Only one person came to visit him and thanked him for being brave in war. As clearly seen in the poem, the war took away everything in this young soldier’s life, and “Now, he will spend a few sick years in